Heroes And Halflings
by Inferna Firesword
Summary: When the near-indestructible creatures called halflings ravage the island Rohaya, three of the Toa Metru must work with the last surviving Toa Rohaya to stop them. However, these two share a dark secret that could tear the new team's fragile unity apart.
1. Prologue

Heroes And Halflings - Prologue

All was still on the island of Rohaya. The Krycai volcano belched out chunks of molten rock, etched against the deep midnight sky. In the distance, the outline of the Toa Stronghold could be dimly seen. All seemed peaceful.

Then the silence was shattered by the nerve-wracking scratch of claws on rock as a dark figure climbed up the cliff to survey the area. She was a toxic blue, with streaks of slimey black interwoven with it. Fins, long and powerful, arched from her shoulders as she checked her weapons. A satisfied smile grew behind her Kanohi Kaukau as she turned to help her comrades to the top.

The first -- an emerald and black male -- paused to get his bearings, using his huge bat wings to help him. Steadied, he helped the female lift the other male-clad in black and silver armor-to the top. Though his powerful, muscled arms showed that he could easily make the climb himself, he seemed to be concentrating on something other than the rock face he was ascending.

The female examined their troops waiting below. There were seven dozen Visorak of every kind, impatiently gnashing their mandibles. 36 Rahkshi also stood, motionless amongst the spider creatures. But nowhere were those she needed to see.

''Where are those Exo-Toa?'' she asked, annoyed. ''They should've been here with the rack by now.''

The green figure glanced over edge, then back the way they had come. Then he pointed. ''There they are - and our reluctant guests are there, too.''

Twelve Exo-Toa lumbered up through the dark evergreen forest, dragging along an energy frame with three motionless figures hanging in the field. Had there been any outside observers, they would have noticed that – aside from the height, color, and Kanohi – the prisoners had a startling resemblance to their captors.

''Good.'' The female, with a few words, sent half of the armored suits to take the prisoners to a cave, with orders to keep quiet, let no one in, and to not leave until she came for them. The other six joined the troops. The soldiers handled, they turned their attention to their companion, who hadn't moved or taken his red-eyed gaze off the stronghold since he'd reached the top. ''All the guards insomnized?''

The black-silver male turned toward them, his irritated look plain even in the darkness. ''You know better than to ask. I've been at this for a week now.''

''Just checking. And everyone not on duty-?''

''Asleep. Pretty deeply, too.'' He smiled evilly. ''No haunting dreams keeping them awake tonight.''

''Your Mask of Nightmares never fails to amaze me,'' sighed the emerald male, as he gestured for the troops to start moving.

Ten minutes later, they stood not far from the main fortress gate. Six Toa stood there, but it was obvious that they hadn't had slept well in a while.

''Even though they're half asleep, they can still talk - and raise the alarm,'' noted the blue female. ''Mute them, will you, brother?''

Grinning cruelly, the green-armored male reached out with his Mask of Silence and ensnared all six guards in its power. ''No more alarms from these ones - they can't even whimper now.''

''Not that a Toa would whimper -- we, of all beings, should know that,'' the silver-black male said, spitting out every word out as if it were poison. ''Toa are the reason we were created -- the force behind our rise.''

''And they're gonna regret hearing about us,'' the female hissed, as she gestured to the troops. 16 Visorak Roporak and eight red-gold Rahkshi stalked forward. ''Use your camouflage abilities. Strike quietly and from the shadows,'' she ordered. Obediently, they moved off.

''Now what?'' asked her companions.

''We wait. And once we claim the front gates, we slay every Toa in there and make this island ours.''

XxX

True to the female's word, the fortress's front gate was taken. Then she, her companions, and their troops surrounded the stronghold and hunted every Toa in their own home. After the stronghold was seized, the six other Exo-Toa and the prisoners they were guarding vanished within its depths. When the sun set the day after the fall of the Toa, a new banner flapped, in a hot breeze that reeked of blood and shadow.

That banner held the symbol of the Brotherhood of Makuta.


	2. New Arrivals

Heroes And Halflings – Chapter 1

A beautiful sunrise shone over the island-city of Metru Nui. On the balcony of the Coliseum, a lone Toa of Fire stood vigil. He scanned the horizon, but the object his eyes longed to see was nowhere to be found.

Nearly four weeks before, a call from another island had summoned his brothers and sister – Matau, Whenua, and Nokama – away from home. Though they'd assured him and the others that they would soon return, no one had seen nor heard from the three Toa Metru since they had flown off in their airship. He couldn't help feeling worried about them, although they were more than capable of taking care of themselves.

"Still waiting, Vakama?"

Turning at the sound of that familiar voice, Vakama smiled sadly at the speaker. "I'm worried for them, Jaller - although they're probably all right."

"Yeah, well - something's come up. Two Toa turned up in a ship – only them – last night, and they told Hahli that they needed to see Turaga Dume, you, Nuju, and Onewa as soon as possible," said the Toa Mahri of Fire.

Vakama frowned. "Did they explain why?"

"No – that's all they said," replied Jaller, who looked as perplexed as Vakama felt. "But Turaga Dume let them have their way – though I think part of it was because the female got a bit impatient and began sparking all over her," he tacked on.

"Well," the Toa Metru of Fire said, starting to move back within the Coliseum, "if they want an audience, I shouldn't keep them waiting. Where are we meeting them?"

"The main council chamber."

"Alright, then . . ."

XxX

In most respects, the main council chamber looked the same as usual. Same large, oval table; same windowless walls; same elaborately carved ceiling. The only different aspect was that instead of seven Turaga, there were five Toa and a Turaga situated within the room.

The two newcomers had a weary expression on their faces: tiredness from lack of sleep and hope. Behind that exhaustion, though, there was a steely determination, a desire to make it through anything the universe could throw at them, bolstered by their well-muscled physique. The male half of the duo had purple and black armor, and wore an Iden that made him look much older than he probably was. The female had a powerful air to her, with piercing green eyes that made even the veteran Toa Metru feel smaller. Her mask was one that even Vakama couldn't identify: something that looked like a hybrid of a Kaukau, a Faxon, and an Arthron, and all blended together to look rather nice.

No sooner did the door close behind Jaller did they start to speak. "I am gladdened to hear that you that you are willing to hear what we have to say," spoke the female half of the duo. "Our hopes are not in vain, it seems." There was something about her voice that made them pay very close attention, something that suggested she had suffered thousands of moral disasters, and she had come out different; but that seemed to make her voice all the more pleasing to the ear.

"Our mission has called us far from home," said the male Toa quietly, without real emotion behind his words. Something about his tone made their hearts go out to him, like he had lost everything that was dear to him, and it was all his fault.

Nuju opened his mouth to introduce himself and the others, but the female raised her hand to cut him off. "Don't bother – we already know your names. My name is Stara, Toa of Lightning. My quiet companion here," she said, casting an irritated glance at said companion, "is Kronus, Toa of Gravity."

''We are well met, Stara.'' responded Vakama. ''Where do you hail from, and what brings you to Metru-Nui?''

"We come from the island Rohaya, not far south of Metru Nui," replied Kronus, shooting an annoyed glare at Stara, who pretended to not notice. Something about their actions made Onewa think of Muaka cats locked in the same cage – Muaka cats who had a mutual tension and mistrust around each other. "And our duty calls for our paths to meet with yours, because it not only may hold danger for your home, but it involves the Toa Metru personally."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Onewa said impatiently. "What's the deal?"

"We ought to start at the root of the matter," Stara said heavily, pulling out several tablets from the pack she wore over her shoulder. "Tell us this, my friends...

"Have you ever heard of halflings?"


	3. Halflings

Heroes And Halflings - Chapter Two

_The Toa of Air opened his eyes, gritting his teeth against the pain the prison rack gave those who were awake. The purpose of such a device was to keep anyone hanging in its field unconscious, and it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to submit to darkness again. His teammates were hanging beside him, still immersed in the dark nightmares they all suffered from now._

Not far away, he saw them. Their dark mirrors.

XxX

Nuju glanced at the others. Vakama and Onewa looked as clueless as he was, as much as he was loath to admit it. Even Turaga Dume had a blank expression on his face.

"Judging from your expressions, I'd say that you haven't," remarked Kronus dryly. "Very well then – we can't rush over this anyway."

Stara pushed the tablets forward. "This will explain things, I think."

Nuju retrived the tablets, and started to read aloud. He noted as he did that they seemed very worn out and faded, like they had been read many times.

"Halflings, amongst the most dangerous of beings known to this universe, are mercifully rare and difficult to create. However, when a being created from the combination of Shadow Toa and Makuta energies in energized protodermis, as halflings are, is successful, they result in nearly unstoppable spirits of destruction.

"Halfings possess the powers of all the various Rahkshi, and are expert shape-shifters and mimics, like the Makuta that drive their will. However, their power extends to elemental energy as wall, for these creatures share the same elemental power as the Toa that spawned their shadow, and their forms slightly resemble those Toa."

Nuju paused for breath, than continued. Dimly, he noticed that Onewa, Vakama and the Turaga were both held in a horrified trance. Kronus and Stara, however, simply seemed attendant, which lent to the Ice Toa's suspicion that they had read this before.

"Though halflings can be defeated, they cannot be destroyed by anyone except the Toa who - voluntary or not - aided in their creation. Since halflings also die if their Toa does, they often wind up protecting those Toa, while they are the half-creatures' prisoners."

Nuju set down the tablets. It was Onewa who broke the long quiet that followed.

"Wow. Wouldn't want to run into one of those things in a dark alley. But still – what does this have to do with us?"

"Everything," Kronus replied simply.

"About a week ago, a legion of Brotherhood creatures attacked our fortress," Stara picked up the story now. "Visorak, Rahkshi, Exo-Toa – the like. Kronus and I were somewhere else at the time, and avoided being killed. When we returned, the fortress had been taken, and the Brotherhood flag wove from our tower."

"The bodies of our brothers and sisters hung from the ramparts," Kronus, his voice shaking from rage and intense grief, added. "All of them - Atlas, Eos, Hesprides, Sirien, Ares. . ." The others in the chamber noted that he had difficulty saying the names, especially the name of _Eos. _

"We took refuge in a cavern nearby, and Kronus decided to use his Mask of Spirit to scout around . . ."

". . . And I found, a central chamber, three figures that could only be halflings," finished the Toa of Gravity. "Certainly the fact they hugely resembled their prisoners was a clue."

Nuju suddenly felt as if he had leaped over a giant crevasse without wearing a Kanohi Miru. "Prisoners?" he asked, voice very low.

"Yes – three Toa, of the elements Air, Earth, and Water."

"After he returned and described them to me, I couldn't believe it," Stara said softly, no trace of hesitation or doubt in her voice. "But when we switched masks and I saw them myself, I know what they were, as much as I'd love to be wrong in this case."

The Toa of Lightning leaned forward, her voice as serious as a repeat of the Great Cataclysm.

"Your brothers and sister, Toa Metru, are prisoners of their halflings."


	4. Choice

Heroes And Halflings - Chapter 3

_The Toa of Earth was trapped in darkness. Even though he was used dim conditions, for once he was unnerved by the absence of light. He tried to activate his Kanohi Ruru, but it gave no responding beam of comforting light.  
_

_But he knew the darkness was the least of his worries now. The hunter, that twisted mockery of him, was in this place with him. Worse, he knew it wasn't here on a social call.  
_

_It was here to feed him his deepest despairs, his worst nightmares..._

XxX

"Impossible."

Onewa could hear himself speaking, but it sounded like his voice was coming from over a long distance. "The others aren't prisoners on Rohaya – they're on an eastern island, on a mission."

"I'm afraid it's true," Kronus replied. There was sympathy in his voice, but his gold eyes still held that determined look that wasn't failing to make the Toa of Stone uneasy.

"But how –" began Turaga Dume.

''- did they end up where they are?'' finished Stara. Onewa was starting to wonder if these foreign Toa could read minds. "We poked around the islands around Rohaya and pieced together the story from scraps of info we picked up. Here's what we think happened:

"Your friends got where they intended to be, did what they were there to do, and left ahead of schedule. On their way back to Metru Nui, they got attacked, and their airship crashed on some island nearby. When they got out of the wreckage, they were surrounded and captured by Brotherhood creatures. They got taken to a Brotherhood base and – probably involuntarily – helped create halflings. They got transported to Rohaya in a special prisoner rack, so their halflings could keep an eye on them, and are probably still there now."

"So you're aiming to save our teammates and reclaim your home? But why don't you get help from other Toa? Why us?" asked Nuju. If Onewa was hearing the skeptical note in the Toa of Ice's voice, he wasn't the only one feeling that way.

"Halflings tend to mimic the tactics of their progenitors. You know the style your friends use to fight, which is invaluable knowledge against enemies with so few weaknesses," supplied Stara.

"Not to mention Rohaya means everything to us – more than you can believe, for some," added Kronus, sending a knowing look at the Toa of Lightning. She flashed an angry look at him, but made no other reaction, making the Toa Metru feel that there was something was up between the two foreign Toa. "And we want to avenge our brothers and sisters for their deaths.

"So it all boils down to this."

Both Rohayan Toa leaned closer and lowered their voices, forcing the three Toa Metru and Turaga Dume to lean in so they could hear their informant's words. Their eyes gleamed with a dangerous light of power as they spoke.

"Our mission, should you choose to join us, is to destroy the halflings, freeing your teammates, and liberating our island from Brotherhood control."


	5. Flight

Heroes And Halflings - Chapter 4

_Her teammates were sprawled on the ground around her, and she wasn't sure if they were alive or dead. Their enemy stood before her, roaring in apparent triumph. The Toa of Water stood alone._

_  
As she prepared her charge – knowing that it would be her last – she hoped death would come swiftly._

XxX

Nuju stood on their airship's bow. In the cockpit, Kronus piloted the craft north toward Rohaya. The Toa Metru of Ice was full of mixed emotions: nervous excitement at the prospect of a new land to see, dread at knowing that they were flying directly into danger, and grim determination to make it through to the end.

After the Toa Metru had agreed to help Stara and Kronus, things had been rushed to prepare for the trip. Provisions and a craft had to be procured, the Kanohi that they might need - Iden, Kadin, and Kaukau - had to be retrieved, and they had extracted promises from the Toa Mahri to help Turaga Dume any way they could. Then a few days' journey north, and here they were.

"Tell me something, Nuju."

Startled, the Toa spun to see the Toa of Lightning leaning on the guardrail beside him. Over the few days the Toa Metru had met her and Kronus, they had noted that she was prone to making sudden appearances and disappearances. How she did it was unknown to them, and Kronus wasn't telling them anything. "What is it, Stara?"

"Well, me and Kronus, we've heard the legends – how the Toa Metru became Turaga millennium ago. How'd you become Toa again?"

Nuju turned away again, a slight smile appearing as recent memories flowed through his mind. "Well, we had gone into the Great Temple to try and find a few things we needed, and we found a chamber we'd never seen before. There was a pool of green-silver liquid – something we had never heard of before. While we were discussing on what to do with it, three of us – Nokama, Vakama, and myself – fell in, and the others jumped in after us. The stuff reversed our Turaga transformations somehow, because when we climbed out, we were Toa again.

"We were shocked by this, but we reasoned that this must mean that Mata Nui had some need for us again. We sealed the chamber and left." Nuju sighed. ''I just wonder if half of our number becoming Brotherhood captives was what he had in mind."

Stara was silent for a few moments, for so long Nuju got a bit worried; in the days they had spent in her company, the Toa Metru had learned that the Toa of Lightning was a bit talkative. (Not nearly as talkative as Matau, but still . . .) Then she seemed to find her voice again.

"I have wondered at times if there was a cure for the Toa and Turaga transformations." She sighed heavily. "Maybe if I had known of that substance before, it would've spared me much pain."

"What are you talking about?" asked the Toa of Ice, turning back toward her, only to find the Toa of Lightning gone; she had pulled off another vanishing act. He felt disappointed, but less from her absence then from the fact that she was hiding something from him. For some reason, he wanted this Toa, one he barely knew, to trust him. This, he knew, wasn't logical, but he desired it all the same.

* * *

Onewa stood behind Kronus in the cockpit, pondering what lay ahead. _Will we be in time to save the others?_ he wondered. _What's happening on Rohaya?_

"Don't you remember what the tablets said?" Kronus' quiet voice broke through the Toa of Stone's thoughts. Over the days they had been traveling together, the Toa of Gravity had spoken little, so it was a surprise to hear him speaking, though his eyes and voice remained dead. "Your teammates will be alive, unless someone got in and killed them, in which case we wouldn't have to deal with the halflings after all."

Though the Toa of Gravity's words did little to lessen his anxieties, they answered his questions so perfectly that Onewa couldn't help asking, slightly startled, "How did –"

"I wear an Iden, not a Suletu, Toa Metru," chuckled Kronus, though there was little humor in his voice. "But your worries are obvious. As for Rohaya – " he pointed forward. "Well, we'll find out soon enough."

Onewa glanced out through the glass windshield. Looming dark against the dimming dusk sky was a mountainous island. The slopes were black with forests of trees that were darkest green, with rocky outcroppings disturbing the repetitive monotony of the greenery. An active volcano could be seen in the center of the landmass, the cap glowing like a lightning bug with a red-orange light in the dark blue skies.

Vakama emerged from the room where he'd been studying maps of their destination. "Is that –" he began.

Kronus nodded, as he carefully guided the craft to a landing in the shallow waters by the beachhead, the struts sinking into the rocky sand even as the engines died down.

"Welcome to Rohaya, Toa Metru."


	6. Rohaya

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 5

Vakama stepped off the airship, his disk launcher in hand, already loaded. Behind him, Kronus was using his powers to raise and lower gravity around their supply bags, sending them down to Stara, Nuju, and Onewa. His job was to keep watch.

Even for someone who had lived in two types of paradise – the mechanized beauty of Metru Nui and the lush, living beauty of Mata Nui – the Toa of Fire had to admit that Rohaya was a class all its own. The deep, dark forests of pine trees that carpeted the lower slopes of the numerous mountains had a haunting harmony to the volcano in the island's center. A river burbled down to the black sand shores a few bio away from him, seeming to laugh as it joined the sea.

"Hey, Vakama! Give us a hand, will you?"

Turning at Stara's muffled shout – her tension and Kronus's was clear – he realized that all their supplies had been unloaded. While the Toa Metru divvied up the load, Stara and Kronus pulled out a strange veil and swathed their ship in it. He wasn't sure about what it did, but Vakama was pretty sure it wasn't something to keep it dry.

"Unless they walk on it, those halfling's won't know that our ship is here," Stara said as she hefted two bags over her shoulders. "We should probably camp close by, in case we need to leave quickly."

They set out, but it quickly became obvious that there was something up with the island. Despite the beauty that Vakama had admired, the terrain was so rocky and harsh beneath the trees that the Fire Toa half-thought that the island had been created to kill a being through exhaustion; by wearing them down to their last reserves of energy, and then stealing that as well. Barely ten minutes into the exercise, the three Toa Metru were physically in agony, while the two Rohayan Toa were still breathing easily.

Before they could marvel too long about the wonders of the other Toa, both Stara and Kronus froze where they were standing, about three bio ahead. "Mata Nui, not now . . ." Stara whispered, sounding like she was begging for whatever they were sensing to not be true.

Then all of them could hear it – a deep rumbling beneath their feet, unique in that it didn't sound like an earthquake. And was steadily getting louder.

Kronus wheeled, dropping the bags on his shoulders even as Stara did the same. "All of you, up! Get in the trees!" he barked, even as he and the Lightning Toa pulled out their weapons. There was no mistaking the urgency in his voice, so even Onewa dropped their bags and scrambled up on branches of the tall pines.

Below, Stara and Kronus had bent down on the ground, hunched over, the butts of their weapons digging into the soil and their heads bowed over in a posture of submission. Nuju couldn't fathom what they were doing, but this was their home. He figured they knew what they were doing.

A roar sounded out of the ground, vaguely sounding like an ancient language no longer used in the universe; the raw decibels nearly shook Vakama out of the tree he was in. As the echoes faded away, Stara responded in kind, albeit much softer and formally. It was easier to discern than the garbled roar of the island below, but Nuju doubted that even Nokama's mask would be able to translate it.

Another roar from below. This time, it was Kronus who answered the question that must've been asked, in modern Matoran. "They're here to help us stop the killers that have polluted the island. They can trusted."

The answer seemed to appease the speaker, because the roar slowly died down until it vanished from hearing. Yet, Onewa could now sense something deep beneath the bedrock under their feet: something huge and slow, pounding steadily like a heartlight.

Stara and Kronus rose back to their feet, and Stara gestured up at the Toa Metru. "It's safe; you can come down now."

Vakama slid back to the ground, followed closely by Nuju and Onewa. "What _was _that?" the Toa Metru of Stone asked, more surprised than he'd like to admit. "What were you talking to?"

"Rohaya."

The name of the island brought them up short. _"What?"_

Stara looked towards the pea volcano in the center of their island. "There are many legends of creatures that lurk beneath the islands, dormant. In truth, there is only one such creature: called Rohaya, which means "Heart of the Volcano" in an ancient dialect.

"Ancient records tell of a creation of the Great Beings, who helped bring this universe to life. When its tasks were complete and Mata Nui began his reign, it was transformed from metal and flesh into energy, and imprisoned beneath this island. The volcano was opened, so its angry energy could be dispersed safely. And angry it was over the supposed betrayal, until it discovered its new Purpose: to aid in protecting Mata Nui. From that, many experiments occurred. Eventually, we – the Toa Rohaya – appeared from those experiments."

"It's just a legend," scoffed Onewa.

"Legend?" repeated Kronus, and suddenly the two Toa looked quite dangerous; Onewa actually backed up a bit. "Legends tend to be true more often than not. Are legends false, even when the structures made by those that came before you still stand? False, even when their skeletons still crumble in caves that riddle the island? False, even when the island itself speaks to you, like it just did?"

Onewa suddenly backed down, looking a bit intimidated by the passionate defense of the Toa Rohaya of their legend. Vakama spoke up, hoping to defuse the tension. "What was it saying?"

"It wanted to know why you were here," Stara replied. "We told it you were here to help us defeat the halflings. It allowed you to walk this island freely, without fear of destruction from its actions. If it hadn't accepted your presence here, it would've taken measures to kill you."

"Like what?"

"Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, freak storms, rockslides . . . you get the picture. We have so many Toa here because it brought us here, and we were meant to spearhead the war effort against the Brotherhood."

"Enough of that, we need to keep moving," Kronus said brusquely, picking up his load and moving on. Stara shrugged, retrieved her own bags, and followed, the Toa Metru in tow, silently contemplating the story they had spoken of.

About five kio inland from their original landing site, Kronus said "This will do – there're some sheltered caves nearby. Stara, can you check them out?"

The Toa of Lightning set down her load and stood in front of the indicated area, where three mouths opened up, indicating tunnel carved out by the volcano's eruptions in the past. She paced back and forth, sweeping her gaze over the entrances; she was doing something, but they couldn't tell what she was up to. Finally, she pointed. "This one. No sign of inhabitation and it is large enough for us all."

"How can you tell? You haven't even gone in!" scoffed Onewa.

Vakama leaned inside, using his flame powers to light the cave. "Stara's correct – this place is huge!" And so it was.

"Wow." Onewa looked at the Toa of Lightning with new respect in his eyes. "Guess I owe you an apology, then. But still – how'd you know that?"

Stara dragged a bag inside and dropped it in the cave, far from the entrance. "My mask – the Mask of Enhancement – allows me to strengthen any of my abilities, or the abilities of those I'm in physical contact with. Sight, strength, hearing, smell, touch, vocal workings – they're all fair game, though the result isn't as strong as mask powers devoted to those aspects. I used my mask to add to my night vision."

"Could that work on your enemies too?" Nuju asked curiously.

"Theoretically, yes," interjected Kronus as he levitated the last things in. "But Stara would have to be in physical contact for it to work, and any opponent who had any sense of personal safety would keep clear of her as much as possible."

**XxX**

By the time night fell, the team had fractured into two factions. On one side of the large fire Vakama had sparked up from the wood Kronus had collected, Kronus himself and his compatriot sat, eyes steadily meeting the eyes of the three Toa Metru, who were grouped on the other side. Both Rohayan Toa were seated cross-legged on the rocky floor, but Stara's right leg was straight up at the knee, and her right arm was resting on top of her kneecap. Ever since they had finished setting up camp and building the fire, they had lapsed into a silence that seemed to solidify as the minutes stretched on. Even Nuju, who preferred silence, felt uneasy about it.

Finally, Onewa had had enough. "So," he said bluntly, addressing the Toa Rohaya, "just who were your teammates ?"

A shocked silence replaced the awkward one. While Nuju and Vakama had asked in curiosity on the airship, both had been given responses that indicated that neither of them wanted to talk very much about them.

But maybe they were more comfortable, now that they were back on Rohaya – or they, too, had felt the need for speech and camaraderie – but neither of them got snippy about the subject. Indeed, there was a faint smile on Kronus's face behind his Iden as he said, "We're a large team, Onewa – just who do you want to hear about?"

"Anyone."

An odd expression crossed Stara's face; it took them a few seconds to realize that it was a wry smile. Their confusion was understandable: whenever the Lightning Toa smiled, only half her mouth would curve upwards. The other half seemed to tug on it, trying to keep her face straight. Another flash of curiosity swept Nuju – just what had this Toa gone through, to reach this point where she couldn't even smile properly? It wasn't like he himself smiled all that much, but at least it happened fully.

"Well," she said slowly, "there were Ares and Atlas – they were Toa of Magnetism and Iron, respectively – they, along with Kronus and Eos (one of our Water Toa) were the founders of the Toa Rohaya. And there were Crevan and Calhoun, a pair of Ice Toa – they showed up with Paytah and Egan, our Fire Toa." A faint rosy color tinted her face suspiciously, but they plowed on before Nuju could ask.

"There was Matsu and Washi, the Toa of the Green and Air – they were the first to join the Rohaya after we formed it" –

"Alvis and Amaya, the other Lightning and Water Toa" –

"Baird, the Toa of Sonics, and Sirien, the Toa of Psionics" –

"Just how many of you were there?" interjected Vakama, before they all got swept up in a sea of names they would never remember.

Both Toa Rohay grinned ruefully, now that the floodgates had been flung open. "We were one of the largest teams in the universe before what happened here," Kronus said, sobering slightly. "At any given time, most of our core group was here, on Rohaya, but we sometimes sheltered other Toa for a little while, before they went their own ways."

"How many made up your core?" Vakama asked, thinking about the Toa Mangai and their original eleven members.

"By the time 1000 years had passed after the Cataclysm," the Gravity Toa said, with pardonable pride in his voice, "our core group consisted of twenty Toa, including Stara and myself."

The number stunned the Toa Metru.

"Why'd you have so many?" asked the Stone Toa.

"Well . . . remember what we said earlier today? How Rohaya brought our team together to fight the Brotherhood?"

They all nodded.

"To do that, you need three main things: a large group of people with diverse powers and talents, access to a place where you can gain supplies, and a strong, well-hidden base. For a long time, Rohaya was unknown to most people in this universe; most didn't even know it was here, with the fog rolling off the island concealing it pretty well. Even the residents of Shi-Nui didn't know about it for years – it's a shipping port not far away; most goods in the northern universe come through it at some point," Stara quickly explained to them, who now realized just how little they knew of the universe beyond Metru Nui. "We usually station some of our own there to help protect the city; they only have one Toa, so they appreciate the help."

"Even as strong as we were, we couldn't take on Brotherhood forces head-on all the time," Kronus went on, giving Stara time to catch her breath. "We only did that when we had strategized enough to know the upper hand was ours – or else we were forced into it. Intercepting vessels that passed, though . . . that took up a lot of our time."

"Our main goal was to keep the Brotherhood and the Dark Hunters strapped for weapons, since that's what their ships usually carried," the Lightning Toa continued. The fire was starting to die down, and her green eyes reflected the embers. As she stood to get more wood, she added, "We got the odd slave and prisoner ship once in a while, but we mostly were taking warships and their crews into custody."

"A lot of the people we sheltered over time said we were a lot like pirates, the way we were attacking ships and taking their cargo," Kronus added grimly, eyes filled with a fire that the Toa Metru had never seen in their short time with him, "and they were right about that. But they could say this much about us: we never killed if we could help it. We only took lives if we had no other choice; all the rest we sent to the prisons of Shi-Nui."

"Because of the Toa Code?"

Nuju quickly regretted saying that. Both Toa Rohaya narrowed their eyes, as dangerous as they had seemed earlier that day, and when Stara spoke, her voice had gone cold. "No. Not because of the Code. Because of ourselves. We don't like taking lives, but we're willing to, if it means we can live to fight the Brotherhood another day. Back when this war began, Toa were forced to choose between the honor of the Code or surviving."

"Interestingly, the ones that chose the Code and then got attacked didn't live very long to regret their choice," the Gravity Toa said dryly.

"But how is it wrong to be honorable?"

"Nothing. But clinging to the Code in a war, where your enemy won't follow it and will expect you to follow it – that's suicide. And suiciding Toa just makes the fight harder to win. Better to ignore honor, and risk becoming a monster, than to stick with it, and watch something far worse than a Toa that likes killing take over what you love."

Abruptly, like that settled the matter, Stara dumped more logs onto the fire, set the dry wood alight with a high-heat zap of electricity, and then strode over to the packs. "We can continue this conversation later. Right now, though, we should probably check in on the halflings and see what they're up to." After pawing through the bags, she looked up, frowning. "Kronus, how many Iden were we supposed to have?"

"Four."

"We have only half that."

An odd expression on his face, the Gravity Toa walked over and dug through the packs as well. "That's weird. Maybe they were short a few masks."

"Or they did it on purpose," she mutter sourly. The Toa Metru gave her a nasty look for her criticism, but neither of them noticed. "It's probably better this way, though – then we'll have at least two people always staying behind and making sure our bodies aren't attacked," he mused.

"You're going, I assume?"

"That's right." Kronus looked over at the other Toa. "Vakama, Onewa – come with?"

As the Toa of Fire and Stone rose and went to retrieve their new Kanohi, Stara gripped her friend's wrist. "Be careful," she said seriously. "I'm not sure if charging in to save you three if something goes wrong will be all that easy."

Just before he triggered his mask power, he grinned at the Lightning Toa and said, "Aren't I always?"

**XxX**

Kiria stared impassively at the equally blank face of her progenitor. While she and her brothers were hanging in the trophy room of this fortress like they themselves were prizes of conquest, they were much more important than just that. They were the prisoners of Kiria and her own brothers, but they were also their sole link to life, their only failure point. If these Toa died, or woke up and escaped the rack, the lives of the three halflings would end soon after. So the three were kept here; not locked in some dungeon on Destral, where anything might happen to them, but under the eyes of those that needed them most, who wouldn't take risks with their lives.

The door behind her opened, but the Halfling of Water didn't even need to look to know who was there. The Earth Halfling's weight, increased by his Melding, made the stone floor creak ominiously whenever he was on the second or third story, and standing in one place for too long was a repair job waiting to happen.

"What's up?" the male asked.

"I don't like this," she said right away, voice brittle with anger. Her tone didn't surprise Tayra – the only time Kiria wasn't angry was when she was hunting Toa or executing one of her own missions. Inactivity, combined with being under the authority of Fyre, put the former Makuta in a fouler mood than usual.

Before the female halfling could start listing her grievances, a ghostly figure rose out of the floor just behind her, quickly solidifying into Fyre, his pupil-less, venomous green eyes narrowed. In the claws of his giant bat wings, there was a stone tablet, stamped with the ensign of the Brotherhood.

"Spare us from your lists, sister," he said, his voice as bored as hers was angry. He'd already been forced to deal with challenges to his authority from her, something he felt stemmed from her progenitor's position as deputy leader on her team. By now, the Halfling of Air had become jaded to her nit-picking, but the complaints still irritated him. "And quit taking out your frustrations on the troops – we've lost too many Visorak from your rages, and we can't spawn Rahkshi to replace them."

"Then order more to be sent from Destral," she said coldly.

"We don't need them – we're strong enough to be armies on our own."

"Then why stop me from killing them?"

"We'll need them." He raised the tablet he carried. "I have news."


	7. Secrets

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 6

Onewa had flown before, but he'd usually been carried by Matau in the heat of battle. He'd never been able to fully appreciate the freedom the Toa of Air enjoyed.

However, while traveling in his astral form, he could now.

He, Kronus, and Vakama had made good time traveling and reached the stronghold in a matter of minutes (although the Toa of Stone had found out that solid objects passing through him was a slightly disconcerting feeling). Hanging on the ramparts of the multi-tiered building were the rotting bodies of 18 Toa, held up by nooses of plant fibers; he realized these were the corpses of Kronus's teammates, carelessly hung out as food for the carrion birds and as a warning to those that would challenge the might of those within. The Toa of Gravity shuddered in horror at the sight and led them onward.

He led them through several dozen chambers: barracks and armories and common rooms. At one point, they passed through a room packed with so many books, Onewa was secretly grateful that Nuju wasn't here in his place and that Nokama was currently unable to do much. But the Toa Rohaya only halted at a central room on the second floor. From within, voices could be heard.

"All right," Kronus murmured. "This is the same room where your friends were the last time I was here. I know it will be tempting to call out to them, but unless they're wearing an active Rode or an Elda, they can't hear or see you. Anyway, we need to find out what the halflings have been up to." Not waiting for a reply, he slipped through the wall.

The chamber was huge, easily big enough to fit half of Po-Metru's inhabitants inside. Hanging on the walls were assorted items, trophies from countless victories: masks, tools, mounted Rahi heads. And in the back of the room –

Onewa and Vakama voiced cries that only they and their companion could hear. Kronus flashed an irritated glare at them, but they couldn't help it. For there, in an ugly black metal frame attached to the wall, suspended by chains of black energy, were Nokama, Whenua, and Matau. All three seemed unconscious, but were spasming in pain. From what Kronus had told them on the airship coming here, these racks were meant to hold prisoners by the Brotherhood; since the Gravity Toa and his team had encountered several other specimens in the past, he had some understanding how they worked. Apparently, they worked by keeping a prisoner as drowsy as possible, while giving the detainee nightmares that broke down their will to move.

Standing in front of them in a triangle shape were three figures, all several feet taller than a Toa. The resemblance between them and the captives was so horrific, there was no doubt that these were the halflings. They were having a discussion, and it was clearly unpleasant.

"Fyre, remind me again why we're still lingering here, instead of killing Toa," demanded an oily black-blue female. She wore a Kanohi Kaukau, and carried a spear and a nasty-looking blaster. She was a good nine feet tall with long shoulder fins, and looked as if she was about lose her temper. "The Visorak are running out of prey, and I'm getting bored."

"We're also running out of Visorak, since you keep taking out your anger on them," the largest of them said sharply. "I know this a foreign concept to you, Kiria" – at this the female seemed even more irritated, but the males ignored her – "but relax. When this is over, we'll be moving to another island, and we'll have plenty of Toa to hunt there. So, Fyre, what schemes have you been cooking up with the Brotherhood lately?" The speaker was a black and silver bruiser-type, who was an impressive 11 feet tall at least, with a creepy-looking mask and broadsword to match.

"The Brotherhood sent a message to us," began the black-green, winged halfling, who wore a Mask of Silence and carried a huge, double-edged sword. While he wasn't the tallest, or even the most intimidating of the halflings, the astral eavesdroppers got the impression he was the leader of this nasty trinity. "Those Toa escapees have returned to Rohaya with the other Toa Metru, with the intention of releasing their teammates and destroying us. This must never happen."

The same thought ran through all three Toa at the same time, filling them with panic. _How do they know?_

Kiria gave a bone-chilling grin, her temper sweetening in a heartflash. "Fine. I'll get a chance to go Toa hunting again, if that's the case. Let's kill them!"

Vakama and Onewa nearly took off at that remark, but Kronus held them back. "Wait," he said urgently, somehow keeping a firm hold on their arms despite the fact they were only spirit. "Maybe they don't know where we're camping."

The Toa of Gravity's statement was somewhat justified as Fyre shook his acid-green head. "They want the Toa alive, so they can create more halflings from them. No, we need to catch them, and here's how we do it."

All three halflings leaned in to hear. The eavesdropping Toa leaned in too.

"These Toa want to enter to enter this fortress. Fine. Let them. But if they want to get in, they'll need the key, since the back entrance is blocked now." As he spoke, he pulled out a metal key and broke it into three pieces. "And we'll be waiting in the most dangerous locations on this island. We'll each take a piece, as a sort of prize if they beat us –and a tease to bring them to us."

"I'll go to the Razor's Edge," spoke the black halfling. "Kiria should go to Octipi Grotto, and you, Fyre, should take Dragon's Watchtower, since you have seemed to inherited that Toa of Air's love of flying."

"That sounds reasonable, Tayra," said Kiria. "Are we agreed?"

In response – seemingly taking no notice to the underhanded insult to his character – Fyre handed both of them a key fragment. "I'll program some Exo-Toa to watch our prisoners, make sure they don't die while we're gone. If the Toa beat you" –

"As if," snorted the female halfling.

– "or you capture them," the green halfling continued, ignoring Kiria, "return here and inform the rest of us. Good hunting."

Kiria and Tayra teleported away and Fyre walked out of the room, leaving behind three shaking captives and three Toa spirits, startled by their seemingly good fortune.

**XxX**

Nuju glanced uncomfortably at the bodies of his friends. They had made no motions for nearly a half an hour, and the Toa of Ice couldn't help but worry that something had gone wrong.

The presence of Stara was making him even more edgy. She hadn't spoken since Kronus, Onewa, and Vakama had left, but instead was sitting just inside of the cave entrance, tossing her staff from hand to hand. Unbidden, the memory of their conversation on the airship rose to the surface, especially her last sentence: _"Maybe if I had known of that substance, it would've spared me much pain."_

What did that mean? Did she regret becoming a Toa? Or was it something else?

Before he could make up his mind if he should engage her in conversation, a loud snap, like the sound of breaking ice, bounced around in Nuju's skull, accompanied by a pain that made his muscles tense up. He looked up to see Stara standing up in front of the cave mouth, her clenched left fist still raised and crackling with electricity. In her right hand, she clutched her wicked staff. "Come on," she said bluntly, her eyes narrowed.

"What?" he asked – not very intelligently, he noted in hindsight.

"We're not doing anything useful by sitting around and twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the others to come back. And besides, I don't know about you, but I need some sparring practice."

Nuju sat, somewhat startled by her abrupt request, for a few seconds. Then he picked up his Crystal Spikes and faced her. "Whenever you're ready, then."

Inwardly, he'd been interested in pitting his strategy against the Lightning Toa's. A lot of things could be told about a person from their battling style, and this might tell something about Stara's personality. However, about five seconds into their sparring, a bewildered thought had replaced this: _What strategy? _

If she had one, it was lost on the Ice Toa. While his maneuvers had reason and tactile cunning behind them, hers were more wild, like she used them without thinking, with no rhyme or reason to them.

Yet it was working, whatever it was. Her wild moves were fast enough to keep the Toa Metru on the defensive, and the electrical currents that flowed from her were quite creative. One trick had been to increase the field of static electricity around her, which then jumped out to zap him when he came too close. And the one time he had been able to get a firm hold her shoulder – by getting behind her – she had grabbed and swung him around with enough force that – if he hadn't let go and fallen to the floor – he would've twisted a shoulder joint. As the tempo quickened, he felt himself change, and saw the calculating resolve in each of her movements. In a way, she was as good a tactician as any of the Toa Metru; better in that she did it all on her feet.

Nuju wasn't sure when they had fought their way out of the cave. All he remembered later on was that the landscape shifted from the fire-licked stone of their base to the dusky, sweet-smelling pine forest, made darker by the night that surrounded them.

Nuju gained an advantage by the movement – he became able to move far out of her close range, taking every chance he got to throw ice bolts at his opponent. However, Stara would not be denied a chance for victory. When they closed in on a pair of trees, she suddenly unleashed a linear set of lightning bolts, so much more powerful than the ones she had fired earlier that the Ice Toa briefly wondered if she was actually trying to harm him. He rolled to the side to avoid them, but when he came back to his feet, the Lightning Toa had vanished.

Breathing hard, both from exertion and from nervousness, Nuju carefully looked around, trying to glimpse Stara. The forest was silent save for the sound of his own heartlight flashing, but he didn't take heart in it – Stara had once told them that she could slow her own breathing by cutting down the electrical pulses that drove her being. She could be anywhere, watching him just out of sight –

As he backed up against a pine trunk, he heard a _swoosh_, and felt something sharp dig into his neck; in the dim light, he recognized it as Stara's staff head.

"Dead," she hissed in his ear.

From the sounds of her heavy breathing – and from the staff blades at throat – Nuju figured that she was hanging upside down from a higher tree branch with her knees, but he felt that it would be safer for his neck to not turn and check his theory. Then a new voice joined them.

"Also dead," Kronus said from behind them. From the sharp intake of breath, Nuju guessed that the Gravity Toa had snuck up behind them and put something sharp near the Lightning Toa's own neck.

"Alright, you won that round, Kronus," she said, and Nuju felt the staff pull away from him. "But the victory was fun while it lasted."

"True. Now maybe you ought to let Nuju go and come down. We have news."

With a start, Nuju realized that one of Stara's arms had been wrapped around his shoulders to hold him in place; his preoccupation with her blades had caused him to miss that. Now that the Gravity Toa had brought it up, though, a hot flush warmed his face beneath his mask, and he prayed neither of them would notice.

"Right." Her arm's grip loosened and then slid away. Nuju hastily took a few steps away, forcing the blood to leave his face, in case they noted the tell-tale blush.

The Toa Metru of Ice turned around in time to see Stara swing down from the pine tree and land gracefully on her feet, knees bent and upper body folded down upon herself to absorb the impact. "Did you find anything?" she asked, straightening up and retrieving her staff, which she had let fall before coming down.

"Yeah, we did."

"Are the others all right?" Nuju asked, his awkwardness vanishing as worry for his friends replaced it.

The Toa Rohaya of Gravity nodded. "They looked the same as they did last time I checked up on them. We'll get into better detail when we get back to the cave."

With that, they walked back towards the base, which was about fifty bio away from where Stara had caught him. Nuju beat them in, walking as fast as he could to avoid feeling awkward again, and met Vakama and Onewa as they stiffly got readjusted to their bodies again. "Where - ?" the Fire Toa began.

"Sparring. She beat me."

Before Onewa could commence giving the Ice Toa a hard time about this flat retort, the two Rohayan Toa ducked under the rock outcropping, Stara bristling with impatience. "Well, what'd you see?" she demanded without preamble.

As Kronus launched into an account of the conversation he and the others had listened in on, Nuju's gaze wandered back to the Toa of Lightning. Though he normally didn't see such things, he couldn't help but notice that Stara was exceptionally pretty, with gold-silver armor on her slim, muscular frame, elegantly designed mask, and emerald eyes. He remembered how easily she had fooled him, and he blushed lightly again, before he chilled his blood so the others wouldn't see. He, for the life of him, couldn't understand why he was taking notice of these aspects, when he had never done so before in his life, but he was.

"That's not like a halfling, though."

Kronus's voice snapped the Toa of Ice back to reality. "Halfling's usually will take the most direct approach to protect themselves, not give their enemies so many chances to get at them."

"Let's worry about that later," interjected Onewa. "What are these places like? How are they dangerous?"

Stara retrieved a map from the tablets and laid it down on the floor before the group. It depicted Rohaya, and from the hand, they were betting that Stara, Kronus, or someone on their team had drawn it. "Octipi Grotto is a series of underwater caverns, inhabited by dangerous sea Rahi – though I'm betting that the Boggerak have cleared out most of them by now. Its main entrance is just a few kio west of the fortress, but it's covered up by rock and vines – and a few acres of pine trees.

"Razor's Edge is a natural tunnel network in the western side of the Krycai volcano – again, dangerous Rahi – but that's not what gives the place its name. There are rock, crystal, and metal formations in there that can slice through all but the toughest armor. Not to mention it's as black as a Makuta's heart even at high noon, and it's a complete maze if you don't know where you're going.

"Dragon's Watchtower is the only non-natural danger – it was created several thousand years ago by other beings, the same ones that created our fortress. We have records detailing the building of both, but they were abandoned long before we came here for the first time, along with Rohaya itself. The place is about as tall as the average Knowledge tower, and is a disaster just waiting to happen – though we can blame ourselves for the neglect of it; we hardly ever go there. Some parts of the floors have collapsed, and one good earthquake could knock it down completely."

"We won't have to deal with Rahi in there, will we?" asked Vakama.

"No. Hardly any creatures lived there to begin with, which has probably dwindled down to none by now." Kronus flashed a rueful grin. "They must have more common sense then these halflings do."

"So, are you saying that we're going with what the halflings want to happen? Why not just storm the fortress, if that's the idea?" asked Onewa skeptically.

Stara laughed mirthlessly. "That's assuming we'd win – and there are a lot of factors working against us in that instance. After we finished rebuilding the fortress when we first came here, we did a pretty good job at making it impossible to get into any other way. You heard about a back entrance, but they found it, so we can't go that way. There are tons of Brotherhood creatures and tools in there, not to mention that the halflings might turn up and use your friends as shields to force us to surrender. No, we'll have to follow Fyre's plan – for now."

"I suggest you get some rest. All of those places are a fair distance away, and we'll need all our strength tomorrow," Kronus murmured as he doused the flames. Even as the Toa divvied up the sleeping space, Stara and Kronus picked up their tools and taking up a position by the entrance; they had insisted that they could go without sleep longer than the Toa Metru, since they were better used to the island's exercises.

**XxX**

Nuju quickly found himself drifting, not asleep but not quite awake either; that state of mind where some thoughts were clearer than ever, and where others were thicker than Bula syrup.

In the midst of that, he caught the sound of arguing voices, kept down to a whisper, and opened his eyes a crack to see the dissenters: Kronus and Stara, their bodies silhouetted by the glow of the moons outside. Stara's body was as stiff and straight as a poker, save for a slight angle towards her more casual-looking Gravity counterpart.

"Is this wise, Kronus? Should we really play into the hands of our friend's killers?"

"Stara, they saw us escaping the library before we came to Metru Nui. If they haven't completely blocked the back passages by now, I'd say they came from Stelt instead of Destral."

The sound of teeth grating in frustration. "And what of our companions?"

"What about them?"

"You've seen how they regard us: They don't trust us. Who can blame them, though? We don't always follow the Code, and we brought them bad news. 'Ill news is an ill guest', they say."

"You should stop being so pessimistic, Stara. Just because of what happened on your homeland – " the Gravity Toa started. Nuju's ears pricked; the topic intrigued him.

"Over one thousand years have passed since then, Kronus Rohaya," Stara said icily, cutting him off. "I haven't forgotten how it felt to lose the ability to ever return home – and I haven't forgotten what it takes to survive, when no one in their right minds will harbor an exile."

A sharp snap from outside both stifled Nuju's soft gasp and diverted the Rohayan Toa's attention. A pause occurred, then Kronus vanished outside, leaving Stara to continue guarding the entrance – but against what? Her eyes swept the cave interior like laser beams – Nuju hastily closed his own eyes and pretended to be asleep – then flitted back to outside, unaware that the Ice Toa's fine mind was focused on one thought: They were in the company of a Toa that had received the capital punishment aside from death: permanent exile from one's homeland.


	8. Right or Wrong?

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 7

_Matau knew that the frame's nightmares must be getting to his head. As he sank back into the blackness of tormented dreams, he decided that he had only imagined those beings floating behind the mockeries of himself, his brother, and his sister: especially since two of those beings resembled Onewa and Vakama._

The sad part, he reflected, was that this rack would drive them insane in the end. That pretty much proved they weren't real.

**XxX**

Stara shoved the blades of her seven-pointed staff through the interwoven thorn-vines that covered the cave entrance and pulled them roughly aside. She muttered a silent "sorry" to the spirit of her fallen teammate Matsu as they hung limply to the side, some broken from her rough handling – the Toa of the Green had loved all the plants that lived on the island, and had been distraught every time a tree died from disease, or had been felled by his teammates for some purpose. She did feel, though, that he wouldn't mind her this time – he had purposely grown these vines to cover the cave, so Octipi Grotto wouldn't be accessed.

The Toa made their way into the shallow rock-mound; most of them shied away from the pool of midnight-blue water that dominated the hollow's back, but the Lightning Toa did not, peering into the depths. On the surface, the entrance to Octipi Grotto looked like a calm pool, but Stara knew that in this case, appearances were indeed deceiving. Lurking below was the entrance to a cavern network that could, on its own, swallow unwary travelers. Once the Rahi of the deep had also given trouble, but all signs showed that most, if not all of the Rahi had left.

She bit back the painful memories of her time before she had joined up with the Toa of Rohaya. Usually she kept them behind her – eight hundred years amongst those she called friends had helped make them easier to ignore – but the barrier had been breached when the halflings had come. She tried to rebuild the wall and spare herself the pain she had suffered again, but then Kronus would go and pummel it to nothing again with his subtle hints about that horrible mistake she had made all those years ago.

She had learned from that mistake. She knew she could never let her guard down around others, to never trust anyone fully. After she had been forced from her home, those lessons had saved Stara's life many times, enough time so that they became a constant rhythm in her brain, an instant reaction whenever someone tried to get closer to her, though the latter had been dulled by her time with the Toa Rohaya, and then sharpened again by this invasion. It was agonizing, though, now that she was around someone she wanted to get closer to herself: her soul saying one thing, her instincts telling her another.

Her thoughts drifted to the Toa who haunted her dreams and set herself against her instincts, the one called –

"Stara!"

Quickly dragging herself back to reality, Stara wheeled around and looked at Onewa. "Yeah?"

"Are we going in now?" asked the Toa of Stone, eyeing the water with apprehension in spite of the Kanohi Kaukau they all had placed over their own masks.

The Toa of Lightning glanced out of the grotto. Outside, she could see the suns setting. Since it was already dim inside, she could rightfully guess that it was going to be as black as a Makuta's heart underwater. It had taken a whole day to reach Octipi Grotto anyway, and while she and Kronus were only slightly tired, Onewa looked ready – along with the Toa of Fire and Ice – to collapse.

She smiled. "Nah. We'll get some sleep, tackle Kiria in the morning. You three need rest anyway, since you're not used to this terrain.''

Kronus volunteered to take first watch, and once the rest of the watches had been divvyed up, Stara did what she usually did when sleeping outdoors: she crammed herself into a rock crevice, curling herself tightly. It was hardly comfortable: the rock dug into her back armor, making it cut into her muscle and left her stiff by the time she was roused. But old habits were always the hardest to break.

As she slipped into her dreams, the image of _that_ Toa made its way back into her mind. Two questions nagged her.

_Does he feel the same? And if he does, will he still after he learns my past?_

**XxX**

Was it wrong? Was it right?

Kronus wasn't sure what the answer to this puzzle was. It was both right _and_ wrong to keep Stara's secret: right because she was his friend and teammate; wrong because it went against every code that existed, even if he completely disregarded the Toa Code – which he didn't.

Ever since that day she had confided in him, and he had promised to preserve her secret, he had felt discomfort when he was Stara mingling with the Toa Rohaya, coming from his concern for both parties (would they feel that sort of camaraderie for the southern Lightning Toa if they knew?) and with himself. Despite all his reassurances that he believed her, that her people were the ones at fault, and that their loss was Rohaya's gain, he had never been able to shake the gnawing doubt that whispered his own secret fear: his fear that she wasn't being honest with him.

If the Gravity Toa had woken up one day to find Stara had killed the rest of his team, he would feel and be responsible. It was his most common nightmare, constantly haunting him and making his relationship with Stara strained, to say the least.

Kronus glanced towards Vakama, lying in a bedroll opposite of where Stara slept. _What would you have done in my place?_ he thought. _Would you have made the choices I have?_

The right thing to do would be to tell Vakama at least of this . . . let the leader of the Toa Metru know what he was dealing with. But he was caught between his pride and his promise; sandwiched between his desire to not bow to his fears and his oath to protect this secret.

Troubled at heart, he looked out of the cave mouth, wishing he could at least talk to Ares and Eos, his seconds-in-command . . . he especially wanted to talk to Eos, his beloved Water Toa. But no, her spirit was floating somewhere on Rohaya, unable to rest because she had not been buried. Until he himself died, he would never speak to her again.

Being a leader was a very lonely business. He had learned that from the day Rohaya had chosen him to lead the team, the day he, Ares, Atlas, and Eos had washed ashore and had come to the Krycai, drawn by the being's call. Every legend said the same thing: wielding power, especially as a Toa, was a lonely job, with your teammates being the only ones that could remotely relate. Being the leader was even worse: none of your teammates knew how it felt, how hard it was to make choices that might be wrong, feel worse than everyone else when your plans went wrong, and heave a huge sigh of relief when they went right: at least, until they had to take on that mantle themselves.

Not even Vakama knew how it felt, since in comparison to the Toa Rohaya, the Toa Metru were a small team. He'd lost eighteen friends, eighteen members of his family, the night the halflings had come. He'd forever carry that grief, forever feel guilty for not being with them when they had taken their last breaths.

**XxX**

Vakama swam beside Onewa and Nuju, with Kronus and Stara leading them deeper into the caves. The Toa of Fire had noticed yesterday and now that those two Rohayan Toa were hardly speaking to each other, and wondered what was up with them.

The trip though Octipi Grotto had been largely uneventful (unless you counted Onewa getting lost twice). According to Kronus, who had made a quick scan with his mask prior to submersion, they were getting close to the chamber where halfling Kiria – Nokama's dark mirror – lurked.

"All right," Stara murmured, as she floated before a large tunnel opening, voice slightly hard to interpret through the bubbles she expelled through her mouth. "This is it, right?''

"She's in there," confirmed the Toa of Gravity.

"Anything we should know about the room?" asked Onewa.

"Stone walls, 30 feet tall top to bottom. Water level: 13 feet deep. Handholds and grottos all over the place." Kronus rattled off the information easily, like he'd memorized the dynamics of the place – which he probably had. "Onewa, you'll have to be careful using your power on the walls and ceiling – one wrong application and the whole structure will come down around us."

"I'll be careful," promised the Toa of Stone.

"Stara –"

"Don't even start, Kronus," snapped Stara, sounding testy. "First lesson of being a Toa of Lightning –never use electricity when around conductive substances."

"All right!" Kronus replied, wounded. "Just thought I'd mention it."'

Nuju had also noticed the unmistakable tension between them, and was absurdly pleased by it. He didn't want their unity to break, of course – it was fragile as it was, considering the fact the three Toa Metru were slightly uncomfortable around these allies, who broke the Toa Code so easily, combined with what the Ice Toa himself had overheard two nights ago – but he couldn't stop one thought from running through his mind: _If they were cozy before, they sure aren't now._

"Everyone ready?" asked Stara. Kronus, Vakama, and Nuju nodded assent. Onewa simply responded with, "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Then let's go."


	9. Kiria

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 8

_Suddenly the nightmare changed for Nokama: She was underwater, with stone walls all around her. The Toa of Water realized she was seeing this through the eyes of her halfling, and curiosity filled her. Was it the energized protodermis used to create the half-beings at work, giving her this link?_

But she ended that chain of thought in a flash, as she realized what the halfling was seeing. As Kiria's intense pleasure at her dark desires being fulfilled swept through Nokama, the captive Toa realized that the problem with prison-rack nightmares was that you couldn't wake up when they became too much to bear. You had to watch, whether you wanted to or not.

**XxX**

"Well, well," hissed Kiria. "I knew you'd be coming, but I never thought I'd be fighting Toa so soon after Fyre set up the plan."

Nuju felt chills race through him at the sound of the Halfling of Water's voice (and chills going through a Toa of Ice is a rare thing). So much like Nokama's, but harsh and ragged, like the breathing of a wolf after a long, hard run through snow and chill. Quite unlike Nokama's own flowing voice!

A predator's smile crept over Kiria's face as she lifted a fragile chain higher up her throat. Fastened to it was a key fragment –the object they were seeking.

"You want this, don't you?'' she said in a deathly soft voice as she saw how their eyes become riveted to it, and let the pendant settle around her throat again. "Well, know this – you're gonna have me to contend with."

Her violet eyes narrowed as her hands tightened around her spear and blaster. "And I play for keeps."

Without warning, she thrust her spear forward. A riptide slammed into Vakama and Kronus, throwing them hard into a rock wall. Stunned, they sank slowly toward the floor, eyes dark as they struggled for consciousness and air now denied to them.

Their teammates snapped into action. Onewa willed jagged spikes of rock to erupt around the halfling, even as she smashed them to stone splinters as swiftly as he created them. At every open opportunity, Nuju sent bolts of ice from his crystal spikes, attempting to freeze the halfling.

The Toa of Fire and Gravity weren't forgotten in all of this. Stara knew she couldn't use her elemental power underwater, despite they were the most potent weapon they had in this environment – she'd hurt her allies as much as she would harm their foe. So, getting her dazed teammates was her consolation prize: something she could do to make herself useful.

The Toa of Lightning grabbed Vakama and Kronus and shot for the surface, but quickly realized that she wasn't swimming fast enough, since even her Rohaya-granted strength wasn't enough to pull the deadweight of two Toa. Since they had had their concentration shattered by the blow, their Kaukau's weren't active, and they were most of the way unconscious from said blow. It didn't take a scholar to realize she wouldn't break the surface before they drowned.

_I might not be as friendly with either of them as I might be in other circumstances,_ she thought, _but neither would want to die like this. Better to go down fighting than to succumb to the depths. _

Taking a final breath of air, Stara shifted from the borrowed Kaukau to her own personal mask. Accessing its power, she enhanced her speed beyond its previous limit. In an instant, she breached the water's surface, throwing her comrades to a high ledge. But just as she made to climb up and join them, a fist of water slammed into Stara's back. Surprised by the attack, the Toa of Lightning fell backward into the water with a tremendous splash.

Rapidly switching back to the Mask of Water Breathing, Stara surveyed Nuju and Onewa's progress. From what she could see, they were at a stand-off with the halfling; neither side truly had the upper hand.

An idea suddenly began taking shape in her mind. As she let it unfold, she realized this had a good chance of succeeding. Now she just had to get it moving...

"Nuju! Onewa! Get out of the water!" Stara shouted, even as she shot back for the surface herself. "She has too many advantages down here!"

Both were all too willing to follow her example; they had gotten a severe thrashing during the last minute or so. Seconds after they got to the crevice where the revived Kronus and Vakama waited, Kiria burst out of the water herself, standing on a column of water. No longer under the surface, she began sending bolts of chain lightning at the Toa. All but Stara – who simply absorbed the lightning thrown her way, adding to her own energies – were forced to leap from handhold to handhold, crevice to crevice.

Just as Vakama and Nuju rejoined Stara in her sanctuary, Kiria sent a huge bolt at them. The Toa of Fire and the Toa of Lightning met the blast with one of their own, flame and electricity combined. The blast stalemate went on for a minute or so, but in the end Vakama and Stara won. The Water Halfling was thrown into the opposite wall and was barely able to keep her grip on the handholds she seized. It was sheer bad luck that she was hanging right next to Kronus, who promptly seized the chance to start smashing her with his mace, its blows strengthened by the increased gravitational field around its' head.

"Vakama. Got any disks that will put Kiria back in the water?" asked Stara, even as she tensed herself.

"Yes, but why? Like you said, she's too powerful underwater," he replied

"You'll see. Nuju, when Kiria goes under, freeze part of the surface and keep back."

Vakama loaded and took aim, while Nuju readied his spikes. Stara yelled, "Kronus, get away! Now!"

"No! I've got her cold!" he yelled back.

"Is this really the best time to discuss this?"

Kronus seemed to get the message that this was urgent and that his friend had something in mind, as he quickly desisted and leapt to join Onewa in another grotto. Vakama launched his disk at Kiria as she moved away from the wall, which when it struck was revealed to be a high-powered _reconstitutes at random_ disk. Shocked by the sudden, multiple changes going through her body, unable to control herself, Kiria dropped underwater again, making an even bigger splash then the one Stara made earlier.

Nuju sent a blast of ice at the turbulent surface, freezing part of it into a decently sized iceberg. Stara, clutching her staff, dropped down onto it and crossed to the edge. Her eyes swept over the pool; finding what she sought, she raised her tool, bolts of tightly concentrated lightning crackling at its head.

Vakama and Nuju suddenly figured out Stara's intention. Both hit the crevice floor, gesturing for Onewa and Kronus to do the same, just as the Toa of Lightning's staff made contact with the water.

A giant spider web of blue lightning bolts erupted in the liquid, the light casting strange patterns over the walls and ceiling. Amidst the crackling of the lightning, two sounds could be discerned: a terrible, garbled scream and Stara's exhilarated laughter.

Nuju peered over the edge. The water had an intricate, complicated pattern of lightning spanning its surface by now, and was extending beneath it as well. Most of those bolts had found their way to a single junction point: Kiria. The halfling was spasming as thousands of volts racked her body, the cry of agony issuing from her open mouth. It would've been easy to pity her, if Nuju didn't already know she had the blood of Toa on her hands; as such, he felt little sorrow for her pain.

Stara stood on the iceberg's edge, her staff still in the water. She seemed similarly unaffected by the sight, despite the fact lightning was racing over her body as well, forming a sort of electrical armor over the metal plates she already wore. If anything, it seemed to add to her strength, resolve, and (Nuju added as an afterthought) beauty. The electricity did seem to give a wild, untamed look to the Toa, which suited Stara quite well.

Seconds later, a blinding flash filled the room, so bright Nuju was forced to shut his eyes. When he opened them again, Stara was removing her tool from the water, the lightning gone from its surface. Kiria was nowhere to be seen.

Nuju rapidly climbed down the wall and dropped onto the ice block. Stara was breathing slowly and deeply, eyes closed. The Toa of Ice guessed that she was attempting to dispel the stray lightning still shooting up and down her frame.

Stara must have heard his approach, because she turned and opened her eyes. Her half-smile appeared on her face as she gestured to herself. "Side effect of a major discharge – I end up sparking for a while after."

"Where'd she go?"

"I think our halfling couldn't take the electrocution any longer and split. Anyway –" Stara's eyes fell on the place Kiria had occupied seconds earlier. "–she left us what we need.''

Star dove underwater, her frame still giving off electricity at times. By the time Vakama, Onewa, and Kronus had joined Nuju on the ice, she had surfaced again, carrying the chain Kiria had been wearing. Still attached, somehow undamaged, was the first key fragment.

"Well. That's one down. Two to go."


	10. Climb

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 9

Kronus sighed deep in his throat, glaring first at the rough granite face that led up to the ledge entrance of the Razor's Edge, than to an equally irritated Stara, who was toying with the remains of most of a rope ladder that had been found at the bottom. The rest of it was still dangling twenty bio above their heads.

"Of all the times," he muttered to his friend, "that we don't have rope."

The Lightning Toa scowled and flicked the shredded rope and splintered wood away, letting it tumble down the shallow slope and get lost in the overgrown grass, even as the Toa Metru made their way up to the Toa Rohaya. A day had passed since they had emerged from the maze of tunnels that was Octipi Grotto, Kiria's key fragment safely tucked into a pouch on Stara's belt. Her manner since that battle had changed, becoming more approachable and less snippy when one engaged her in conversation. Kronus was used to it: he'd long ago learned that a Lightning Toa's attitude was largely dictated by the amount of electricity stored in her body – too much or too little both made them grouchy – and he'd known that Stara, despite her outward façade saying otherwise, had been as eager for a rumble with the halflings as he had, and still was.

"What's the holdup?" asked the Stone Toa. In reply, Stara pointed straight up at what she and the Toa of Gravity had been observing. "Rope ladder's been broken."

Onewa stared at her like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That's it?" he scoffed, clearly doubting the intelligence of the Toa Rohaya. "Why have a rope ladder when you could move the rock into a staircase?"

The Lightning Toa made a mocking half-bow to him as she and Kronus stepped back. "If that's your position, O wise and powerful Toa Metru," she said, voice thinly disguising a challenge, "than do so."

Slightly disconcerted – Stara had never given in like this unless she had something up her armored sleeve – Onewa glanced at the rocky face looming above them, and willed steps of stone to be torn free from the cliff, creating a stairway to the entrance. He cast a smug smile at her – but, as it turned out, he had done so a little too early.

Without any warning or prompting, the stone slammed back into place, without any direct command from the startled Toa Metru. And – as if to add injury to insult – a narrow pillar of rock suddenly erupted from the face and struck him right in the stomach, forcing Onewa to stumble backwards as the wind was knocked out of him. It had happened so fast, the pillar emerging and retreating so quickly, that an observer might've missed the entire episode if they'd blinked. The comical expression that had appeared on Onewa's face, though, confirmed that it had happened.

Both Vakama and Stara were fighting a losing battle to not laugh, and even Nuju had a hard time keeping his face straight – Onewa had never been his favorite person, and having his own element strike out at him was the metaphorical icing on the cake. Kronus was smiling, but there was an apology in it as he said, "And that's why we needed a rope ladder. It was the only thing Rohaya would allow us to do so we could get up there outside of climbing up with ropes – and it was hard enough to do just that, trust me. Cargan, our Stone Toa, tried that same thing, and got the same result."

"And you didn't tell me this why?" the Toa of Stone gasped, regaining his breath – and his wounded pride – quicker than expected under the circumstances.

"And miss the chance for Rohaya to punch you out? I think not," Stara said, unable to resist making one more shot at him before they returned to seriousness. "Moving on from the island's tendency to punch Stone Toa, we still need to get up there. The ladder's broken, and if Kronus brings us all up by erasing our gravity, it'll leave him too weak to fight anytime soon." When Kronus shot a wounded/offended look at her, the Lightning Toa rose her hands up in an attempt to clear the air. "What? I'm just stating a fact, brother."

The Gravity Toa let that go and returned to the matter at hand. "I could probably levitate myself, Vakama, and Nuju up to the ledge without exhausting myself," he mused. "Onewa, think you could make the climb?"

"Shouldn't be too hard."

"Good. Stara?"

In response, Stara gripped two of the seven blades on her staff – five on the top, two on the bottom – and detached them with an expert air. After strapping her weapon to her shoulders, she gripped both (presumably strong) blades in her hands and looked at her leader. "I'm good. You three head up; we'll follow once you're at the ledge."

Before any other words could be spoken, the Toa Metru of Ice and Fire suddenly felt about their bodies shift, like chains they hadn't known existed had been abruptly cut. Glancing down at their feet, they realized that they were floating a few inches off the ground, Kronus doing the same.

Looking completely nonchalant about their rise off the ground – after all, he was probably used to creating gravity reductions – Kronus bent his knees and sprang straight up; while not exactly flying like a rocket, he was soaring upwards – and staying up in the air – a lot longer and faster than any normal being should. Getting the idea of what to do, both Toa Metru copied the Toa Rohaya, and it didn't take long for them to reach the ledge, where the purple and black Toa was already waiting for them.

As the Toa of Gravity allowed their personal gravity to return to normal, Nuju gasped softly as he felt a heaviness fall back down on his body. "How can you bear not being like this all the time?" he asked.

Kronus smiled slightly, somewhat breathless from his use of his powers. "Because eventually I'd run out of power, and floating around doesn't seem like a good trade-off for having a three-day nap to recover it."

Far below, Stara and Onewa – seeing their companions safely on the ledge – took this as their cue to start climbing. While the Toa Metru's Proto Pitons were better suited for the climb up, it became clear that the Toa of Lightning was no pushover herself when it came to rock climbing.

**XxX**

Above them, Vakama drew Kronus aside from the edge, where they had been watching the other Toa make the climb. Nuju remained within earshot as the Fire Toa asked, "Kronus, I wanted to ask you something about Stara."

Kronus tensed up slightly. Had the Fire Toa somehow guessed about the secret he and the Lightning Toa had kept hidden from everyone? Still, his fears didn't intrude his voice as he asked casually, "What about her?"

"The mark on her left shoulder. What's that about?"

Kronus tried not to look too relieved. It wasn't about her exiled status after all; it was just about the strange, triangle-shaped symbol burned into her armor. "Her _Gerilmi_ mark?"

Surprised, Nuju looked away from watching his allies. "Her what mark?"

"_Gerilmi. _Old word; literally means "Gypsy" in old Matoran," the Gravity Toa explained. _"Gerilmi_ usually roam together in bands of ten to twenty; they'll take any straggler in. They're more common on the Northern Continent than in any other place in the universe, but they're well-known around the universe for their rules of hospitality.

"See, anytime they give a person their hospitality, their rules obligate the one they housed to return that generosity to any _Gerilmi_ that knocks upon their dwelling; and if you joined them for a time, then took your own path, that compulsion is even stronger. Since I had a lot of former _Gerilmi_ on the team, I wound up playing host to more than a few bands when they managed to find Rohaya," Kronus finished with a small smile.

Any further questions were silenced by scratching on rock, followed up by Stara herself and Onewa using the broken ladder to finish their ascent. After Nuju and Kronus helped them up – and after they caught their breath from the ascent – the five made their preparations. Stara had cracked open a hidden cache that her team had up on the ledge and doled out the lightstones inside to them, since none of them had thought of requesting Kanohi Ruru on Metru Nui. By the time they all felt ready to go, they had five lightstones, half a dozen floating fireballs, and an orb of electricity centered on Stara's weapon. This vestige of light did little to cheer their moods, since Kronus had grimly said, "Pity the caves are about five times darker than these can help, until you get closer to the lava tubes."

The Lightning Toa tried not to be pessimistic – though it was clear that she was fighting a losing battle again – but no one could doubt the seriousness in her voice when she said, "Remember: do not touch the outcroppings." With that somber warning in mind, all five plunged into a black that seemed as cold as ice water.


	11. Blood Oath

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 10

The formations of rock, metal, and crystal that gave Razor's Edge its name, Onewa realized, had not been over-exaggerated by the Rohayan Toa.

The iron and stone stalagmites and stalactites were threatening enough in their jagged appearance to make avoiding them a no-brainer. But the crystal formations (so many shapes and colors!) looked so alluringly beautiful, so innocently winking in the lights they flung around with fire, lightning, and stone, that Onewa was quite tempted to go and get a few. Nuju actually tried to do just that, only to be stopped by Stara. The Toa of Lightning, however, had a wistful look on her face as well, showing even the tough-as-nails Lightning Toa wasn't immune to the seductive shimmering of the gems.

Onewa had also realized that Stara had a point, back when she and Kronus had been briefing him and the others about their destinations: the caves were so dark, he could barely see his hand in front of his mask.

Kronus finally called for the company to halt. '"We're likely to be going in circles. I'm going to scout ahead."

"'Be careful," cautioned Stara.

The Toa of Gravity's only response was a dull thud. Stara raised her staff to reveal his body lying on the ground: he'd used his mask power to fly ahead. All his teammates could do was wait for him to return.

Stara wandered over to a chamber corner, adding to the light with another ball of lightning. Her eyes roved over the walls, being careful to skirt the outcroppings to avoid making a new mark in her armor, even as she felt her feelings of familiarity increase. She had rarely come to Razor's Edge after joining the team – in more than one way, she was not the best Toa to be in the caves here – but she knew that she had come near the beginning of her time here. And this chamber she was in made her feel déjà vu.

She paused, noticing how the light seemed to illuminate a narrow crack in the far corner, just big enough for her to squeeze through. Age-old curiosity warred with her duty to protect Kronus, and duty lost.

Emerging through the tight fissure – she was just lucky that it wasn't too long, otherwise her muscle mass and armor might've posed a problem – she found herself in another room, smaller than the larger room she had just left but big enough to house two dozen Toa her size. There were fewer crystals here – the only one here was a large, fuchsia cluster extending from the far wall, which sparkled temptingly in her electricity's crackling light.

Stara ignored the attractive glittering and focused on the ledge that ran around the room: obviously carved, since the volcano couldn't do anything delicate. Scattered on top of the stone were carved wooden cups, small and shallow: some set up on their flattened bottoms neatly, the vast majority lying on their sides, like a bar drunkard who had abandoned his bottles for others to clean up.

"What is this place?"

Stara didn't look behind her to see: from the electrical charges coming from behind her, she could sense Nuju and Onewa already there, with Vakama squeezing in behind them. "Where we are initiated," she said simply, since she knew this was the place, where she hadn't been in eight hundred years. Sensing the fact none of them comprehended what she said, she went on. "When we choose to stay on Rohaya, as a permanent member of the team, the initiate gives part of them to their new teammates and to the island . . . and those already committed do the same, to reaffirm that conviction. Rohaya consumes what is offered to him, as do we."

Almost thoughtfully, like she wasn't thinking as she did so, she unhooked part of her left wrist-guards, rubbing the flesh beneath the armor. Even in the bad lighting, Onewa could see the long, pale scar running vertically above a major artery. This hadn't been inflicted by an enemy; she had done this to herself, presumably where they stood now.

"Your hand –" he started without thinking. The look she gave him silenced the Stone Toa.

"I only have one scar like this. Kronus has had to bleed more times than this: once when he chose to stay on Rohaya, and once for every group of new Toa that came to stay. About ten, if I remember correctly; I'll have to ask him."

Noticing the startled looks on all others present, she smiled grimly. "Blood oaths are not made lightly. Drawing blood from yourself, showing your willingness to bleed for what you swear by, and letting the island soak up what you let drip and bear witness to your oath: it is binding. Though, it could be worse."

"How so?" Vakama asked, horrifyingly entranced by her calm discussion of cutting and blood. For some reason, he felt that Whenua would like being here now, listening to the former _Gerilmi _speak. He was vindicated with what left her lips next.

"Old artifacts we've found say there were those that lived here before us: they swore blood-oaths by cutting off one of their fingers; a rather stupid way to show dedication, in my opinion. Better than the other serious version: slashing twice over their heartlights. 'Cross my heart; hope to die.' That last part was rather literal for that time."

Smiling slightly at the looks on their faces, Stara gently pushed by them and squeezed through back to the main room, where she could hear Kronus reviving. She had no fears of him being possessed by a Makuta: halflings had no antidermis to control, thus making such possession impossible without an Iden, and there were none in the fortress. No Rahi of any kind would go near his body: Vakama's fireballs circled his spiritless body, sufficient to scare anything that came near.

"What'd you find?" she asked, helping the Gravity Toa to his feet.

**XxX**

Nuju was the last one to come through the crevice, just in time to hear Stara's violent exclamation. It wasn't yelled – Stara hardly ever yelled unless she needed to – but the rough curses that were peppered liberally throughout the long sentence more than made up for the lack of volume.

"What is it?" the Ice Toa asked, pulling the rest of him through the rock and fully rejoining the group.

Stara's only response was a growl of frustration, slamming her gauntlet-sheathed right hand into the wall, dangerously close to a metal spike growing from the room's side. With Stara currently venting her annoyance, the Toa Metru turned to Kronus for an answer. "Tayra seems to have decided he likes his Toa hot, since I found him in a chamber that opens up to the volcano's main lava vent. It goes straight down to the magma chamber, and if the Krycai decides to handle the halfling itself, we're dead."

Nuju groaned at the thought. "Here I thought the Morbuzakh and the Great Furnace was the worst heat I've had to face."

Stara seemed to have calmed down a bit; at any rate, she had stopped cursing and ramming her fist into the stone walls. "We'll have a bit of a problem," she said, like she hadn't displayed a bit of her temper a few seconds ago, eyes flashing with her calculations. "Vakama will have no problem in this enviroment, naturally. I think you can handle it, Onewa, along with Kronus." She passed over Nuju, knowing that his weakness to heat. "I'm not sure about myself, though. I can take a lightning bolt, but that's just a quick, intense, blast of heat to deal with. Slow-roasting is something else."

"And then you go storm-mad after you get hit by the lightning bolt," Kronus joshed.

The Lightning Toa's shoulders rose and fell as she said casually, "Which is why I tend to avoid doing so. Shame I couldn't say the same about Alvis, though," she added, even as they moved on.

About twenty minutes of tense walking later, they came to a cavern easily big enough to hold Metru Nui's entire population of Ko-Matoran inside, and then some. Not like a Ko-Matoran would want to – only a Ta-Matoran would be able to stand the sweltering heat inside for more than a minute or so. Scattered over the walls, floor, and ceiling were more formations, bigger than the ones they had seen earlier, that could easily run a proto drake clean through. At the far side, where the wall should be, there was only an open space, lit by an orange glow from the magma below.

And the room's other distinguishing feature? Other than them, the room was completely devoid of living things.

"Where is he?"Vakama asked no one in particular, even as he loaded a disk.

Stara, who was a few feet to Nuju's left, suddenly wheeled and slammed into him, knocking them several yards from the others. Startled by (and strangely enjoying) the Toa of Lightning tackling him, Nuju started to ask why she had. The words died in his throat, however, as she rolled off him into a crouch, facing the direction they had started from.

Tayra was in the space he had occupied seconds earlier, the blade of his broadsword where Nuju's neck had been – and still would be, if Stara had not reacted as fast as she had. A maleficent smile crept over his face as he took in the scene before him.

"Welcome to the Razor's Edge, Toa," he said, in a voice like snapping bones and rushing blood. "The heat is on."


	12. Tayra

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter Eleven

Nuju scrambled to his feet, crystal spikes in a ready position. Behind him, Stara covered his left flank, staff extended and crackling. Tayra didn't seem to care much about their preparations, or the fact he had three other Toa settling themselves at his back. He was probably convinced that his victory was assured, especially since the Toa of Ice was already weakened by the heat.

Without warning, the halfling shot forward at Stara, who barely got her staff up in time to counter the swipe of his sword. Behind him, a dumbfounded Onewa watched his swinging proto piton hit empty air – the same way Tayra's broadsword had done after the Toa of Lightning had knocked Nuju out of the way of its trajectory.

Stara herself expertly flipped over the huge half-being's shoulder while Nuju slid under his legs to rejoin the others. Both scrambled to get into position in the arc their teammates had formed themselves into. Tayra suddenly turned in a manner that someone so large should not have been able to do, and plowed into the group.

Taken aback, the Toa fought as well as they could. Kronus slammed the head of his mace onto the halfling, increasing the gravity around it to make the impact stronger, leaving dents in his armor that his foot could fit comfortably into. Stara swung her staff, an electrical charge humming on its' head that could down a Kane-Ra. And the Toa Metru used their various powers and tools, but all to no avail. They hardly left a scratch on the thick-armed being.

Finally Onewa scored a hit by willing a stone formation to grow abruptly and get stuck in a place where two plates of armor overlapped on the halfling's left shoulder. Tayra bellowed in surprised pain – and responded by backhanding the Toa of Stone clear across the chamber.

Onewa hit the wall, his arm slightly grazing a metal point growing out of the wall beside him, which trapped him in place between it and a gigantic black crystal formation. Almost immediately, he realized that what the Rohayan Toa had said about the formations in Razor's Edge was a painful truth: The metal had sliced clean through his armor just by brushing up against it.

Meanwhile, Stara gripped Kronus' shoulders and used him as a ladder, even as the Toa of Gravity bounced the Lightning Toa off the handle of his tool, sending her up into the air and flying towards the halfling. The grey-gold-silver Toa spun in mid-air, landing a kick enhanced by her mask that sent Tayra screeching across the chamber floor. Just as he straightened up, he suddenly froze, holding perfectly still.

Mystified, the Toa looked at each other, all silently asking what the halfling was up to. Then they realized that someone's mask was gleaming.

"Don't just stand there!" snapped Onewa, his voice filled with tension as he tried to keep his hold on the mind of someone who was fighting back. "Start hitting!"

Vakama instantly snapped into motion again, sending a large burst of flame at the halfling that made his armor soften on contact. Nuju followed through, using his own energy to provide a thick, heavy coating of ice to cover Tayra. But when Stara closed in, she suddenly rose several feet off the ground, flailing desperately to try and regain a hold of solid rock.

Vakama looked at Kronus and Nuju, wondering if their powers of gravity and telekinesis were the culprits here. But when they looked as surprised as he was, and Tayra suddenly began moving forward toward the struggling Toa of Lightning, he realized that a different user of the gravity element was responsible.

Just as a glance confirmed that Onewa had lost his hold on the halfling's mind, Stara's personal gravity returned to normal, and she fell – straight into the arms of Tayra, who took advantage of her position to wrap his arms around her neck and begin crushing her windpipe.

"Fyre says that the Brotherhood wants you all alive," he snarled, holding her in a position that made the Toa of Lightning into a shield from any attack from the other Toa. "But I guess they'll have to do with four living Toa and one corpse."

Stara was gasping for air, her hands pulling desperately at the halfling's stranglehold. But she might have been an Archives Mole fighting a Rock Raptor, for all the good it was doing.

Nuju reacted instantaneously, sending forth the power of his Kanohi Matatu. Encircling Tayra's arms in it, he willed their grip to slacken just enough for the Toa of Lightning to breathe. If he could, he would have made him release his grip, but his mental powers had limits, and he couldn't force the halfling to do so.

Finally able to gasp for air, she tapped into her element. Within a nano-second, a strong electrical current was running over her body, enough to put a larger Rahi than her captor on the ground. It turned out to be more than enough to force Tayra to release his hold completely; he staggered away, trying to put some distance between him and Stara. Unfortunately, Stara and Kronus, determined to press any advantage they could get, charged forward, ready to knock their enemy to the ground.

Seconds before impact, the halfling smoothly teleported, leaving the Toa Rohaya racing for the edge, threatening for them to accidentally commit suicide if they kept this up. Both wheeled and made their bodies stop their momentum, but before they could make another attempt to seize the key fragment, Tayra whirled around in a manner that no being of his bulk should be able and unleashed a vacuum blast that knocked the Rohaya Toa off their feet. Stara's staff and Kronus' mace clattered to the ground, released from the hold of their masters, even as the masters themselves slammed to the rock, tumbled to the edge, and fell over it; they were barely able to grab hold of the rock and prevent their fall into the volcano's core.

Onewa, from his dangerous position between several outcroppings of razor-sharp crystal and metal, saw their predicament and tried to give them better handholds, but the Earth Halfling saw his intentions. A blast of plasma melted a stalactite hanging above the Stone Toa's head into superheated rock, and it rapidly became all the Metru Toa could to keep Onewa from sharing the same fate as the Toa Rohaya were just shy of having.

Grimacing with the effort of gripping the soft volcanic rock, the Toa of Lightning and Toa of Gravity hauled their upper bodies up to the point where they could see what had transpired during their brief removal from active fighting. Gold and green eyes narrowed, and then unleashed their powers.

The halfling was suddenly hoisted up several feet as his gravity was severely reduced. Before Tayra could counter with his own power, a blast of lightning flashed by, bouncing off the reflective crystal faces to build up momentum, and then slammed full-force into his chest plate, sending Whenua's Halfling – broadsword and all – over the edge to join the Toa Rohaya.

Stara reached out with one hand – a precarious position – and attempted to seize the chain that was carrying the second key fragment, wrapped around Tayra's greaves. However, the Toa of Lightning failed to catch hold, and Tayra continued to fall into the magma chamber.

"The key!" And the moment those two words escaped the female's lips, Kronus did something Nuju later described as "Very brave, very stupid, and just plain crazy" – he let go of the ledge, shoved himself further away with his feet, and dove straight down, chasing the halfling. More interestingly, Stara didn't try to grab him, merely peering down through the smoke and steam to try and see what was going as the two fell and became obscured. Only Vakama and Nuju's hands around her wrists broke her concentration as she scrambled up, but she didn't put distance from the ledge when she did, instead leaning over it to try and keep her eyes on the two.

Below, Kronus was barely breathing as he shot straight as an arrow down towards Tayra; the heat and sulfur-smoke would choke him if he breathed too quickly. Since he had dived immediately after Stara had missed, he would reach the Earth Halfling quickly.

He slammed into the hard, armored body of his adversary, clinging desperately to him as they fell closer to the magma's bubbling surface. The halfling's red eyes snapped around and saw the Toa inching his way towards his arm, where the key fragment was dangling in a taunting sort of manner.

They grappled in midair, mouths set in a scowl of determination. Tayra's strength far outmatched Kronus' own, even here in the Krycai where Rohaya slept and the heart of their power lay. Almost like in answer to Kronus' silent prayers for help, electric shocks raced down from above and struck the halfling in many places that would spell paralysis or electrocution in a normal being. Unfortunately, this did not occur here, but it gave Kronus an opportunity. Snarling with effort, he grabbed at the creature's wrist where the key fragment was, tearing at the tiny links even as the Toa of Gravity braced his feet against his enemy's chest, hunching his body to protect his body and gather his strength.

_Snap!_

The chain broke, wrapped tightly between his purple and black fingers. The magma below was rushing up to meet them at an alarming rate, now that he was actually paying attention to it, and Kronus was quick to react. Summoning his strength to its absolute limit, he launched himself up, heading back up the tube.

Tayra teleported seconds before hitting the molten rock. Kronus had a better way to evade: he erased his own gravity to the point where he floated up the tube, being careful to avoid the supersoft, superhot, rock that made it up.

This was why Stara had not gone: she wouldn't be able to get back, though she had contributed to this by sending her electricity to help distract the Earth Halfling. But they had the key two-thirds of the way done now, and that was all that mattered.

Stara's hand was reaching out, and Kronus shifted his gravity so she could haul him back into the side-chamber. His body was choked with ash and soot from the volcano's smoke, and his armor was more than a little soft from the intense heat of the Krycai, but there was no doubting the triumphant look in his eyes as the key dangled from the chain in between his fingers.

Stara let out a breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding in, and moved to her friend's side, and gently brushing the soot off his shoulder plates. Now that the crisis had passed, she was willing to show how afraid she had been for her leader.

Naturally for her, she showed her affection with a roughness that came easily to her. "You're lucky," she informed him brusquely. "I can't think of many legends where non-Fire Toa jumped into a volcano and lived."

"I don't think any of them were Gravity Toa," he replied, grinning with the thrill that came with defying death.

Nuju coughed pointedly to remind the Toa Rohaya they weren't alone in the chamber; part of him felt that unlogical twinge of jealousy at seeing the two of them. "We've got two key fragments. What's the plan now?"

Stara looked thoughtful, even as she and Kronus went to help pry Onewa out of his prison of metal and crystal. "There are two halflings at the fortress now. They haven't tried to attack us with their foot troops before now because they underestimated our capabilities, but now that we have one more battle to handle before we can enter the stronghold, they won't be as confident. They'll probably start sending their forces out at us: either to delay us from reaching Fyre, or weaken us enough to be captured right there. The ground isn't safe now, with Visorak bound to be running around on it. We'll have to find a way to avoid that."

As she finished her summarization of what their situation was bound to be now, she and Kronus managed to maneuver Onewa out from between the growths of crystal and metal. The Toa of Stone sighed with relief – he had been starting to get a crick in his neck from trying not to get pricked there – but he was quick to jump in with a suggestion. "Kadin?"

The Gravity shook his head, even as they all began to leave to chamber – much to their relief. "Not as exhausting at that. You leave this problem to us."


	13. Mountains of Teeth

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 12

Stara and Kronus had kept their promise about keeping off the ground without using the Masks of Flight. They'd also been right about the reactions of the two defeated halflings now holed up in the fortress. At all hours of the day – and a lot of the time at night – the five Toa could hear the rustling off Makuta troops in the foliage below, and occasionally, they heard the _woosh_ of displaced air as a Rahkshi patrol flew above their heads. It was sheer luck and Rohayan cunning that had kept them from being spotted already; Onewa half-wondered just how many times the two Toa Rohaya had dealt with similar circumstances.

Their path after the fight in Razor's Edge had taken them to a tunnel that went beneath channels the island's Toa had excavated to direct the lava flows from the volcano away from the fortress. While there hadn't been any eruptions lately, the temperature in them had risen to the point where Nuju had been forced to his knees from heat stroke. In the end, Kronus had been forced to carry him out of the area ahead of the others, much to the Ice Toa's embarrassment: not so much from the fact the heat had overpowered him, but because he knew Onewa was never going to let _that_ go.

After emerging from those hot tunnels, they had stopped at a nearby spring that Kronus said was pretty close to the island's center, using it to cool their armor down and scrub the ash from their bodies and throats before moving on. This time, they had been taken into the trees – more specifically, onto platforms and walkways built onto the tree branches (or grown into – none of the Toa Metru could figure out which it was). They were high enough off the ground that the foliage would screen them from sight below, but low enough that overhead observers would be hard-pressed to find them. It was across these roads in the sky that the allied Toa made their way east, towards the Dragon's Watchtower beyond the Mountains of Teeth.

"How long have these been here?" asked Onewa, as they ascended another walkway towards the midsection of yet another tree.

"A long time," the Toa of Gravity called back, making his way up to the round, circular platform and waiting for the others up there. "Matsu originally grew these out of the trees in the island's central area, but when we got invaded, their increased usage made him keep growing them."

"Invaded?" Vakama repeated. "But you said –"

" – That Rohaya is a hidden base," finished Stara, nodding as she joined the Gravity Toa on the platform. "Yes, we said that. But the Brotherhood managed to locate us about one hundred years ago, and tried to shut us down. They sent Rahkshi and plenty of robots to try and exterminate us, but we managed to wipe them out. Once they found us, we had our work cut out for us afterwards to keep the waters clear of warships."

Something in the Lightning Toa's tone aroused a question in Onewa, along with Kronus' statement that Rohaya "meant everything to them" prior to departing Metru Nui. "What are you two planning to do after this is over?" he called out, after checking that no patrols were nearby to hear.

Stara and Kronus looked surprised at the Stone Toa's query. "Actually," the Gravity Toa admitted after exchanging looks, "we haven't really thought about that yet; we've mostly been worrying about dealing with the halflings and avenging our brothers and sisters. But now that you bring it up . . ." the purple and black Toa trailed off uncertainly. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But we should focus on the fight ahead now."

"Actually," the grey and gold Toa interjected, "right now we should be focusing on a place to rest." She pointed through a gap in the branches, revealing that the Twin Suns were setting on the horizon, flinging colors into the sky to mingle with the darkening indigo-blues and reddish-purples of night.

Kronus laughed softly and accepted that altercation. "This platform should do for a place to sleep. Tomorrow, we'll make a bit more progress on these walkways and then take to the sky with our Kadin. Who's up for first watch?"

"I will," Stara said instantly.

"I'll go after, then." With that settled, they made camp and spread out bedrolls on the wood, taking care to keep away from the edge before they let their minds drift off to sleep.

**XxX**

Stara looked out into a dark forest, made darker by midnight and boughs. She had always preferred night over day, since darkness made even the mundane things seems more exciting, but with the danger that filled Rohaya now – she could still hear the crunches of the patrols below – she almost preferred sunlight now, sunlight that illuminated the land and destroyed all untruths and dreams.

With her frayed nerves, the Lightning Toa didn't notice that she had started humming until Kronus – who had gotten up to relieve her of her watch – tapped her shoulder and told her so. "Sorry," she whispered, ill at ease.

Her Gravity Toa leader smiled understandingly, making her suspect he had slipped up too. "One of Baird's?" he guessed.

"You tell me."

"You know better than to say that. You've heard me sing; you know how terrible I am."

Stara actually laughed at the memory, as softly as falling snow. "More tone-deaf than me, and I'm sad to say that I can barely carry a tune. Though then again, Baird made us all sound bad in comparison."

Kronus nodded and gestured for her to go rest. As she unrolled her blankets and crawled between them, she thought more of the Sonics Toa, who had been kicked out of his native village since he was a music-maker. To the sensitive hearing of the De-Matoran, it was like he was torturing them, and eventually he'd been forced to leave so he wouldn't hurt them. It wasn't that he had been horrible – the Toa had been created to sing and compose – they just couldn't handle the noise.

_Compared to my send-off from home, they parted on good graces._

With that sullen thought, Stara slipped into unconsciousness, the lovely words Baird had sung with his harp – apparently in homage to Rohaya itself – crooned in her head, almost unbearably lovely.

"_. . . while they pave the footways here with gold dust_

_I still would choose my isle of inisfree . . ."_

**XxX**

When the sunsrise lit Rohaya, it greeted the five Toa lifting off from another platform, as far east as they went in the trees Matsu had affected. All five were wearing their Kadin (after a quick discussion, they had decided that it was more practical for Vakama to keep his launcher ready to fling disks), quickly gaining altitude and heading towards the mountains that surrounded Dragon's Watchtower. The Mountains of Teeth resembled rows of Takea teeth, all thickly packed together, and anyone in their right minds wouldn't dream of ascending on their own. 

_Which is probably why we're flying instead of climbing,_ the Lightning Toa thought.

After about ten minutes of flying, just above the outer range of the peaks, the Toa became aware of a metallic buzzing coming from below. They looked down – just in time to see three dozen insectiods zipping up toward them.

"Nui-Rama!"yelled Onewa, just as they came upon them. The Toa lashed out with his elemental power, but the Rahi simply swerved to avoid the pommels of stone that came flying their way. Before this turned into a full-out air brawl, Kronus used his powers to increase the gravity around their harassers. Suddenly much heavier than they should be, the Rahi plummeted back toward the rocky ground. All the Toa winced as they heard the sickening splat that insects made when they came to a crushing end.

So intent on the gristly scene below them, they completely missed the other swarm of six bearing down on them from behind until it was too late. Before they could react to the buzzing, three slammed into the Toa Metru, ripping away both Kanohi each of them wore. Abruptly deprived of the power to stay aloft, all three plummeted towards the same fate Kronus had delivered to the Nui-Rama.

Leaving Kronus to deal with the insects and recover the masks (she quickly saw all six go to join their swarm brethren a second later), Stara went into a screaming, head-first, high-velocity dive, wizzing past the falling Toa as fast as she could force herself. Kronus was already going to work on slowing them, but he was constrained by natural forces: lessening their gravity might take longer in the air than it would in controlled circumstances. Vakama was also trying to slow them – she felt a heated updraft as she shot by – but his power without the masks was lessened severely.

As she swooped close to the ground, she righted her body so her feet were perpendicular to the rocky ledges that a few pine trees were stubbornly clinging to. She deactivated her own Kadin, dropping down to the stone. She wanted to catch her breath, but there was no time. Redirecting her gaze back to the sky and the falling Toa Metru, she began her work, reaching into the electricity that filled her, her falling comrades, and the world around them.

**XxX**

Normally, Nuju would've used his Matatu to retrieve his Kadin and stop his death plunge, but that was rather hard to do when his main mask was currently flying around with his borrowed Mask of Flight somewhere above his head. His sight minus the two Kanohi was rather blurry, but he still had an unpleasantly good view of the ground rushing up to meet him, even with Vakama's manufactured updraft slowing their fall slightly.

He felt something tug at him, not displaced air – Kronus' gravity powers?

Before it could be identified, the Toa of Ice suddenly froze in mid-air, just bio before he met a very messy end on the rocks. Breathing hard from fear and exhilaration, he looked around in time to see Vakama and Onewa freeze as well, both in different heights above pointy death. Had the male Toa Rohaya caught them?

As it turned out, no.

"Nice catch, Stara!" Kronus called out, sweeping in from above, arms filled with six masks, and landing beside the Toa of Lightning, whose face behind her Kanohi was pale and sweaty from tension.

Noting the surprised looks on the Toa Metru's faces, she elaborated, her breathing shallow. "I made the electricity in the air recognize your own electric signals and grab you. To make a long and complicated explanation short, I made a net of electricity to catch you."

With that, she reeled them in and set them back on their feet, where their masks were returned to them by Kronus and their eyesight restored. Still on a bit of an adrenaline buzz from the near-death experience (which woke them up a lot more than the flight had), Onewa summed up their feelings. "That was interesting. Let's not do that again."

"We're definitely getting close. Nui-Rama aren't native to this range – Fyre must've summoned them to slow us down," murmured Stara, completely ignoring the comment even as she began to fly again.

Within five minutes, they came to a huge, bowl-shaped valley that had an unobstructed view of the sea. In the center was a huge tower, easily 40 stories tall. The outside was carved with serpents winding around the building, and had dragons carved on the open windows. The doorway had no door, but its frame resembled a huge maw of huge teeth.

"Welcome to Dragon's Watchtower," said Stara as they landed.

As they went inside, Onewa felt as if he was being swallowed by a huge snake. Inside, he found out that what the Rohayan Toa had said – that the structure could be knocked over by one good earthquake – was true. There were huge gaps in the ceiling, the stone that had filled them in various stages of erosion on the fifteen floors. There were large holes in the staircase and its banister. And the whole building was creaking as a slight wind buffeted the sides.

"I can see what you mean, Stara," he commented. "This _is_ a disaster waiting to happen."

After a long, slow, careful ascent up the stairs with no sign of Fyre anywhere, the Toa reached the top floor, on the roof of the building. Four huge pillars, each with a winding, winged dragon for decoration, were in each corner. But like the other floors, there was no sign of Matau's halfling anywhere.

"Anyone else getting déjà vu, or is it just me?" asked Kronus, slowly circling, mace in hand, to try and spot their quarry.

Before anyone could answer, a screech from above prompted them to look up. A huge creature was plunging at high speed toward them, its scarlet eyes ablaze with fury. Before they made a sudden, severe introduction to the ground level, all of the Toa used their Kanohi Kadin to become airborne. The creature swerved and suddenly seemed to shrink in midair, taking the form of the Halfling of Air.

"Welcome to Dragon's Watchtower," hissed Fyre, eyes blazing behind his mask. "Welcome to your last fight."

**XxX**

Note: The song is courtesy of Celtic Woman, while Onewa's line after Stara caught him came from _Animorphs_.


	14. Fyre

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 13

"If that's the case," Stara retorted, her staff crackling with electricity on the head, "then we should make this good, shouldn't we?" It was clear that she was confident in their chances of success, and Kronus' stance in midair nearby backed her up.

Fyre's only reaction to the Toa of Lightning's challenging retort was a sudden blast of heat vision from his jet black eyes. All five Toa scattered to avoid the pure heat coming from the beams. Stara tried to slip around the air halfling, with the intention of striking from behind, only to get swept up in a cyclone that threw her back toward the tower roof. Whether Matau's halfling had used the Rahkshi power or the captive Toa's elemental power was unknown.

Everyone tried; everyone failed to score a hit. It seemed that this halfling relied more on the mind-reading and dodge powers then the other dark mirrors. Unless it was a spur-of-the-moment choice of tactics, Fyre kept evading the hits and sweeping in to land his own stinging blows with his double-edged sword.

Finally, Stara increased the amount of static electricity around Frye's body, sending shocks down his spine. The overload on his nervous system made his wings freeze in mid-stroke, sending him plummeting down. The halfling recovered in time to alter his density, allowing him to rise up again.

"Very clever," he hissed in his shadowy tones, as his body became solid again. "I can see why the Brotherhood wants you, little spark. We could have a powerful servant, if it was spawned from you."

"Over my dead body," retorted Stara, looking ill at the thought. "And if you give me a job offer one more time, you'll consider this" – a huge lightning bolt that narrowly missed Fyre punctuated her sentence –"as a token of my love."

As if to scorn them, Fyre focused harder on the air around them and whipped up a violent turbulence to affect their flight, ranging from powerful downdrafts to sudden thermals. Only quick, continuous reactions by Kronus managed to keep them from being swept away on the breeze: lightening them to battle the downdrafts, making them heavier to ignore the updrafts.

"Like to mess with wind, hm?" the halfling said thoughtfully, suddenly teleporting to a place high above their heads. Before they could react, the creature utilized his power of elasticity, stretching his arm out and ensnaring a startled Kronus, hauling him before the Halfling of Air. "Let's quick-alter gravity while we're at it."

Before any of them could voice surprise at the fact a former Makuta had just used a chute-speak term, Fyre's eyes glowed a dangerous blue color, and in the reflection of his Mask of Silence, Stara's keen vision spotted her friend's eyes glowing along with it.

Before she could react, the Toa of Gravity was wheeling around in midair, released from Fyre's grip (whose eyes were back to black), but the blue color had replaced his normal gold-colored eyes. Before they could react, all four of the other Toa suddenly felt themselves struggling for altitude. It didn't take a scholar to know what was causing it.

"After all," the halfling continued as he surrounded himself with an orb of wind that protected him, "why use your own power when you can use someone else's?"

With this new development and wrinkle in their loosely-laid plans, Stara, Nuju, Vakama, and Onewa had no choice but to descend back to the roof of Dragon's Watchtower. Above their head, the halfling floated in his sphere of air, using whatever powers he had utilized to control him like a marionette on a string.

"They're not following us," the Ice Toa noted, as they slowed their madly-flashing heartlights: they had more than one death scare trying to reach the roof without getting slammed into it.

"Why should they?" the Stone Toa muttered sourly. "With Kronus under his control, we can't get to Fyre and his key shard – and he knows it."

Onewa had a very good point, but Stara flatly refused to entertain the thought they were going to fail now, this close to success – and at the hands of her own leader to boot.

"I think we can get Kronus out of the fight pretty quickly – and maybe snap him out of Fyre's control," the Lightning Toa said slowly, the components of her idea falling into place in her brain. "But I'll need your help for this, Onewa."

"Talk to us." Stara knew the Toa of Gravity the best out of all present; if she knew how to best take him out of the battle's equation, the Toa Metru were all over it.

After checking to see that they weren't being overheard by their adversaries (she found it rather odd to be calling Kronus that, even if the label was only temporary), Stara outlined her idea. "When I give a signal, Nuju, Vakama, and I will blast Fyre's air shield with our powers. Once they come into contact with it, Onewa, you need to project this image into Kronus' brain." After detailing it, she added, "Hopefully, battering Fyre's concentration will weaken his hold over Kronus, and that image with break it completely. Even if it doesn't, I'll see to him. You three focus on Fyre once Kronus staggers from the image."

When no argument came, she reshifted her mask back to the Kadin, the others following her lead. She carefully eyed their enemies, seeking an opening as she gathered a large globe of electricity into her hand, just waiting for an opportunity to let it speak.

She got it, and lifted three fingers: the signal to be ready. She lowered one finger . . . two fingers . . . three.

It all happened at once.

Stara's globe flew from her hands and raced up to the Toa of Gravity, shifting from a fat orb to a jagged bolt as it soared; he darted away in the nick of time and splattered against the protective shield of the Air Halfling, like water on a curved surface. At the same time, massive orbs of fire and ice materialized at the whims of their creators and rammed into it, making the softly-glowing walls flicker like a giant strobe light.

**[b]XxX[/b]**

The instant Fyre's shield was hit, the slightest tremble in his illusionary control over Kronus occurred. It wasn't large – if scaled to physical terms, it would've been akin to dropping a pebble into a puddle of water – but for an instant, his perception of reality wavered. Instead of standing before waves of Rahkshi, during that invasion one hundred years ago, he was hovering above the bowl-valley of Dragon's Watchtower, staring down at the roof where four other Toa were taking flight, one heading directly towards him. For that instant, he was bewildered – just what was making Stara tear through the sky at him, bristling with electricity, with that look on her face that meant she was ready to fight? – but then Fyre snatched control again, turning his eyes back to that strange blue color. That moment of hesitation, however, was all it took for Stara to reach her friend, unmolested by gravity changes. This delay was all she needed.

Eyes blazing, with lightning racing out of them (through some trick of evolution, she could pass electricity through her biological components without harming them), she slammed a powerful blast of her element into his chest, temporarily shorting out his mechanical parts and making Fyre slip again (having three Toa harassing him at the same time helped, too). For a moment, Kronus' eyes once again reverted to gold, before returning to blue as Fyre reasserted control over the Toa of Gravity.

When that didn't get the result she wanted, the Toa Rohaya of Lightning took a potentially deadly gamble. Even as she felt gravity yanking her down, she grabbed at her friend's mask, tearing both Kadin and Iden off his face and leaving him with no way to fly. The shock and loss of energy turned his eyes back to blue, this time staying that way – but it also made him start falling down a very long way towards a rather messy-looking death below. While they weren't above the mountains, the floor of the valley would destroy him to the point of becoming shattered metal.

Stara raced down to physically catch him, fitting the masks back onto his face and returning control to him. The instant he was able to fly again, she released him from her hold, but refused to explain what had happened until all was said and done.

Higher up, the Toa Metru had managed to sufficiently badger Fyre into focusing on them instead of the two Toa Rohaya, but he had also managed to keep them on the back foot throughout this battle in the sky.

Even as the Toa Rohaya rejoined the fight, Fyre wheeled and opened his mouth. A shriek erupted from his maw, slamming all the Toa head over heels through the air. Stara had been knocked back to the roof of Dragon's Watchtower, but before she could pull off her static electricity trick again to try and buy time for them to return to the fight, a blast of energy rammed her directly in the forehead.

The Lightning Toa cried out, falling to her knees, hands clapped her ears, even as visions of her worst memories ripped into her direct consciousness.

_She saw fire, fire all around her, orange and yellow and bloodred as she crouched on the ground, pressed into the dirt by the oppressive heat and her own fear from those that were carrying the fire, despite the fact they were supposed to be her allies. Then she was pressed against a stone wall with no escape, the eyes of her tormenter glaring at her as he tore at her breastplate, trying to destroy her defenses. Then morose depression filled her, a larger-than-life echo of what had consumed her at her darkest hour. _

_Yet even as these terrible memories filled her, she realized that they didn't seem as bad as it had been back then. She realized that it was only the past, trying to bite her again – but they couldn't hurt her anymore. _

_She was strong. She was Lightning itself. She was Stara Rohaya, and she would not fall! _

Taking a shot in the dark, she raised her hand and unleashed a bolt of electricity, trying to guess where her enemy was. A scream of pain – not a power scream – and the fading potency of her fearful memories confirmed her attack had left its mark.

Rising, she returned to the fight.

**XxX**

Vakama took advantage of the distraction to load and launch a low-powered _freeze_ disk at the Air Halfling. If it hit (and, it being made in Ko-Metru, he had no doubt it would), it would only cause Fyre's wings to be covered in a thick frost, but it would be enough to give Nuju something to work with while Stara rejoined the fight.

Just as Fyre recovered from Stara's lightning blast, the disk struck. As the maximum amount of frost the disk could generate spread, the Toa of Ice took the hint and began to work the icy covering over the halfling's wings, making it a great deal thicker then it would if it had been left on its own.

As Fyre began to work harder pumping his wings, in an attempt to melt the ice with the increase in body heat, Stara put a black-edged puncture in them with a well-aimed lightning strike. Kronus slowed his descent by lowering his gravity, allowing Onewa the time to sweep in and yank the chain around Fyre's sword hilt off. Done, Kronus suddenly increased the halfling's gravity to the point where he began to collapse into a black hole. Before the process could be complete, the last of the halflings that had been unconquered teleported away for the stronghold.

With a feeling of relief, all five Toa desended to the roof of Dragon's Watchtower. Amid the crumbling remains of a long-past age devoted to grandeur and intimidation, Stara, Kronus, and Onewa produced their key fragments and handed them to Vakama. With pinpoint control, the Toa of Fire fitted the three pieces back together and fused them into a whole once again.

The quest for the key was over.

"Now what?" asked Onewa, after the realization had sunk in.

"We'll head back to the cavern to regain our strength, gather information, and plan. After that" – Kronus and Stara's eyes blazed with a terrifying light of eagerness – "it's on to the fortress."


	15. Betrayal

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 14

The early evening sky was grey with rumbling thunderclouds that promised for a loud, wet night. The Krycai had quieted, no longer spouting lava and ash as it had for the last few days, as if it and the being it represented could sense the silent tension that had engulfed Rohaya. Three days had passed since the Toa had returned from Dragon's Watchtower, and every living thing could tell that heroes and halflings alike were preparing for a fight for their survival.

Nuju and Onewa slid through the underbrush beneath the pine trees, returning from a patrol to make sure no Brotherhood creatures – halflings or otherwise – were out looking for the Toa. They had seen nothing the whole time, even though they had covered 15 kio during the round trip. The reports had been the same with every patrol they and their teammates had made in the three days they had been camped out, but this worried the two Toa Rohaya more than intense patrols would. "Tons of Rahkshi should be hunting us," Stara had said. "If there aren't any Makuta creatures looking for us, it's because the halflings left Rohaya, they killed them all, or they're cooking up something else. I don't think we're lucky enough for the first two options to be true."

Nuju looked skyward as a growl of thunder ripped through the clouds. "Looks like there's going to be a lightning storm. Hope it'll blow off before tomorrow." The Rohayan Toa had decided that they would assault the stronghold the next day. Right now, they were back in the cavern base with Vakama, working on a strategy. Nuju was slightly worried, though, and his fears had nothing to do with the strange feelings he had been developing as of late. No one doubted the prowess and knowledge the two Toa Rohaya had when it came to strategy, but their personalities might be conflicting. While none of them had seen their complete personalities under the circumstances, the Toa Metru all knew they were daring, clever, and had a natural ability to lead – traits that could work against them if they came up with different ideas. If they became stubborn and headstrong about their ideas, their mutual discomfort and suspicion of each other – visible when they weren't faced with danger or a challenge – could couple with it and drive a deeper wedge in the unity the five Toa had.

"Speaking about lightning, I've – well, I don't mean to pry, but its' just something I've noticed when you and Stara are in the same area," Onewa said hesitantly, not sure if the Ice Toa was going to brush him off or not.

"What are you talking about?" asked Nuju, trying to sound uninterested, but unable to keep a note of curiosity out of his voice.

"I've seen the way you look at her, Nuju," the Toa of Stone went on, sounding a little more daring to approach the subject, now that he had the Toa of Ice's attention, but still ready to stand his ground if Nuju got irritated. "It's...well, you know the way Matau looked at Nokama before they got together?"

Nuju nodded as he remembered the intense longing that was in the Toa of Air's eyes when they had been on Nokama during those early times. "So?"

"Forgive me if I'm hitting a nerve but...you have that exact same look in your eyes when you look at Stara."

Onewa fell silent, not sure how his teammate would react to his words. Nuju remained silent for a few moments, then quietly replied, "I don't think so."

"That's how I see it, though," Onewa shot over his shoulder as he picked up the pace, heading back to the base.

Nuju remained moving at the same speed, though his thoughts were whizzing. Now that he thought about it, it explained why his heartlight always seemed to flash faster when the Toa of Lightning was near, why he wanted to be closer to her...

_She's an exile,_ he told himself firmly, trying to drive off the truth. _She's off-limits._

But now that Onewa had come out and said it, he couldn't escape a flurry of sudden fantasies: Stara in his arms, the faint scent of ozone that always hung around her filling his nose, the soft touch of her lips on his...

Nuju shook his head and began moving almost at a run, as if he was trying to escape the realization that he had fallen in love with someone absolutely forbidden.

_But then,_ he thought bleakly, _it's the forbidden ones that are usually the most tempting out of all desires._

**XxX**

Even before they ducked into the cavern, Onewa and Nuju could hear the quarrelling.

"Honestly, this will work! They won't expect us to sabotage when we could enter with the key right now!"

"That won't work! They'll expect anything now that we can come in!"

Ducking past the two arguing Toa, they joined Vakama at the other end of the base. The Toa Metru of Fire was leaning against the wall, massaging his ears from the vociferation Stara and Kronus were launching from their mouths. Apparently, he had unofficially been kicked out of their planning session, judging solely from the look on his face as he observed the contest of wills.

"What's this about?" asked Onewa, turning to watch the scene.

"Opposing viewpoints," Vakama informed him. "Kronus wants to use the Kanohi Iden to take control of some Exo-Toa and weaken the frame's energy, so the others have a shot at getting out themselves. "Stara, however, thinks we should try to sneak through the fortress's back entrance to free them manually. Kronus thinks the idea is too risky, Stara disagrees, and – well, you get the idea. It's been getting worse since then; I'm surprised they haven't snapped yet."

Even as he said the words, Kronus and Stara apparently lost patience with each other, and they let their tempers – already raw and strained from the stress of the venture they were undertaking – show. The Toa of Gravity leapt onto the Toa of Lightning, mace crackling with gravitational energy. Stara dodged and knocked her teammate upside his mask. Even as he hit the floor, she was on him herself, her staff crackling. Outside, the thunder crashed and lightning flashed, the rain beginning to fall outside in sheets, as if the storm had started to really churn in recognition of a kindred spirit.

Before things got out of hand, Onewa willed a huge stone spike to grow out and knock Stara away from the Toa of Gravity. As he leapt to his feet, Vakama raced over and locked Kronus' arms behind his back with his own, restraining him from attacking Stara. Nuju did the same to her, even as he became acutely aware of their proximity: he was _holding_ her in his arms. Of course, she was fighting back, wanting nothing more than to try and get a piece out of Kronus.

"I don't know why I saved your life all those years ago!" she screamed at him, spitting them out as if they bore her unspeakable pain. Then, in a similar tone, Kronus responded with words that shocked everyone into stunned silence.

"And I don't know why I let an exile onto Rohaya – even an exile whom I owed my life to!"

**XxX**


	16. Storm

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 15

Stara's breathing came fast and heavy, a look in her eyes that the three Toa Metru remembered from many years ago: the hurt expression of someone betrayed by someone they thought they could trust. With a sudden burst of strength, the Toa of Lightning ripped herself free from Nuju's embrace and ran outside, losing herself amongst the ancient pines and sheets of silvery rain.

A stupefied expression on his face, Vakama watched her go. "Was that true?" he whispered, seemingly unable to raise his voice. "Stara's an – an exile?"

"I think so," murmured Nuju. "I overheard her saying something about it to Kronus the night we came here."

"You heard that?"

Everyone turned to look at Kronus; he had evidently calmed down after his flash of temper. There was a guilty look in his eyes as he addressed the older heroes. "I didn't think anyone heard our little discussion that night. But now you all know, regardless." He sighed. "I wish I didn't say that – it was a terrible abuse of Stara's trust in me, slim as it was."

"What was she exiled for?" asked Vakama, curious in spite of himself.

"Stara didn't tell me much. All she said was that she had been banished for a crime she didn't commit, even though all evidence pointed to her. She said nothing more, and I didn't want to press my luck."

"But why did you let her on the team?"a scowling Onewa said, eyeing the Toa of Gravity distrustfully.

"When Stara came to us, I didn't know she was an exile; none of us did. She told me about three months after we welcomed her into the fold, and she was ready to leave us when I told her not to."

"Why did you ask her to stay, if you knew she was an exile?"

Kronus turned away and looked into the embers of the fire, seeking solace from the glow. "When I met Stara," he started, his voice pensive as he remembered, "she rescued from a band of Zyglak that ambushed me when I was on my own. I felt in her debt, and when she told me she had no place to go, I gave her one.

"When she told me what she was, I realized nothing but her conscience had compelled her to help me. She had no real need to follow the Toa Code: no law could punish her further than what she had already been punished for turning away and letting me die. She would be the only one that would know she had been close enough to help me and had chosen not to.

"As dangerous as this realization was, I felt more in her debt because of this disclosure. I told her that no edict from a far-off land would force her to leave us – only she herself would. But all the same, we had already felt like she was our sister, and I told her so. It was only after I told her this that she decided to become a true Toa Rohaya, and took the blood oath that bound her to the island and us.

"The only condition she would stay, though, was that I could not speak of her exiled status to the others unless I asked her first. I've kept her secret for over eight hundred years, faithfully . . . until now." The Toa of Gravity hung his head, ashamed at his betrayal.

His hung head, however, did not impede him from noticing that Onewa did not look sympathetic. "You may have been branded an imposter once, Toa of Stone, but you cannot fathom the sheer misery Stara went through before she came to us. I am no exile, but I know how it feels."

"How do you know this?" the Toa of Stone asked suspiciously.

"I can show you. Use your mask, and I will show you."

Wary, Onewa activated his Komau and reached into Kronus' brain. Almost instantly, he got caught up in a whirlwind of emotions, fleeting images adding color to it. These were not images from a third-person perspective, he realized; they were seen through Stara's own eyes, and he had a hard time distinguishing himself from the Toa of Lightning's thoughts . . .

_He was alone, unable to return to the place he called home. No one in their right mind would help him, no one that was up to any good would give him a place to stay if they knew what he was. Paranoia filled him: he could trust no one, even those that might be able to help. _

_Struggles flicked past his mind's eye, revealing just how hard it was to live: just trying to scrape enough money together to survive the day was a challenge. Sometimes, when times really became desperate, he stole from others, becoming an expert at theft and picking pockets to live. _

_Depression filled him. Guilt for his actions. Constantly looking over his shoulder, fearing a sneak attack. Constantly lying to others, incessantly doing things he would prefer not to do – all to live to the next day, even though the depression made death seem like a blessed respite from this life. Only one thing kept him from plunging a knife into his heart, kept him holding on to the next day: white-winged Hope, leading him to the light of the next dawn . . ._

Onewa gasped and broke contact with the Toa of Gravity's mind, unable to bear more images entering him. While his suspicion towards the Lightning Toa had not faded much, he felt heavier now that he felt the intense sadness that Stara had borne for years.

Dimly, he heard what Kronus was saying now. "Stara shared that with me, through Sirien, who was in a trance that prevented her from seeing what she was transmitting between us. I wanted to know what she felt during those years before she joined us – and now you know, too."

"Either way, your idea seems a little more workable, in my opinion," Vakama said to him, quick to head off any further questions "the Referee" might have. Kronus, after a few second's consideration – and time to shift mental gears back to the matter at hand – lowered his head in assent.

"I'm going to look for Stara," announced Nuju – they needed her back with them, exile or not. Before anyone could respond, he walked outside.

The rain was pouring in sheets. Walking a few steps forward, the Toa of Ice squinted into the gloom of the evergreen forest, searching for a sign of the wayward Toa of Lightning. But no sooner had he left sight of the camp's entrance than the forest blurred and vanished, replaced by changing landscapes that defied description. It didn't take long to realize this wasn't an alternate reality, or even a teleportation to another region: it was an illusion. He looked around, attempting to see the caster, though the Ice Toa knew if they didn't wish to be seen, they wouldn't be.

"What do you owe her?" a voice that came from everywhere asked. Nuju recognized the voice instantly: Kiria, Halfling of Water, whom Stara had gleefully electrocuted in Octopi Grotto. "She scorns all your attempts to become friends, or at least closer companions. Why do you chase after her and bring her back, when she has no right to stand with your lot?"

Kiria brought up points he found no point in disagreeing with, since he himself had been struggling against them since he had overheard the two Toa Rohaya discussing her status as an exile. But a simple fact countered that: he trusted Stara. If her intentions had been to cause them harm, she could've done so easily, multiple times over their journey across Rohaya. But she had saved them all those times, proving her loyalty against the halflings. He voiced his argument aloud.

"Ha!" the voice that came from everywhere and nowhere at once boomed contemptuously. "Why should you trust her, when she has blood caked upon her hands?"

"Kronus does too, along with the other Toa Rohaya. They have all killed in battle."

"She has killed outside of battle as well. Ever wonder what crime has done to deserve exile?"

Nuju was struck dumb: he had never thought about the crime, he had only considered the punishment. Doubt clouded his mind, as he considered the idea that Stara might be a murderer.

Yet, he knew if he entertained this thought further, or accepted it as fact, the delicate unity they had would fracture further, making it easier for the halflings to defeat them and turn them into progenitors for other would-be Makuta-turned-halflings. For better or worse, Stara needed to be at their side, and he personally thought he trusted the Lightning Toa more than a former Makuta.

"Maybe she has," he said. "But that does not stop me from seeking her. Release me, or I will make you."

A derisive snort, all but saying _Fool_, but the changing landscapes solidified and returned to the forests of Rohaya – still pouring cold rain, still dark, still familiar.

A sign of Stara's presence, as if on cue, came with the blinding flash that radiated from a cliff overlooking the volcano. After the light stopped clouding his vision, as the accompanying rumble of thunder filled the air, Nuju adjusted his telescoping lens to focus on the bluff. A single figure stood there, body sparking blue lightning from the bolt that had struck her.

The moment he stepped out of the tree line, leaving grass behind for rock, the Lightning Toa he had been seeking wheeled on her heels, eyes flashing with near-senseless rage. Before he could take another step towards her, a blast of lightning ripped from her fingers and into his chest, forcing the Toa of Ice to stagger back as the electricity fed into his mechanical functions, temporarily rendering them useless.

Recovering, Nuju looked into the green orbs of the irate Stara, knowing better than to approach. While she was the first Lightning Toa he'd met, he had once read something detailing a temporary madness that her kind were sometimes afflicted with: what Kronus had called "storm-mad" and what the Lightning tribe itself called "stormshine." Beings struck with storm lightning had their strength and elemental power restored, but for a time afterward – ranging from a few minutes to an hour – they were rendered incapable of telling the difference between friend and foe, lashing out at anyone who would come too close. Another part of that document had suggested this striking was a kind of emotional pain relief for the tribe.

Regardless, he had to wait until the fever had passed to speak to her. So the Ice Toa stood there in the cold rain, holding the hostile gaze of the Toa of Lightning, looking into her eyes and trying to make himself not see the being he had fallen in love with and utterly failing.

Finally, she blinked, and the sheen that covered her eyes vanished, revealing the intense green again. Seemingly ashamed, she turned away, staring at the rock beneath her feet.

"So...now you know," she said, in a dull, lifeless voice that matched her look. She sounded defeated, tired, depressed; it took a few seconds for him to piece a sentence together, then Nuju replied.

"That's what happened to Toa Nidhiki too, you know," he said, naming the infamous Toa of Air whose legacy had always weighed down on Matau's shoulders and made his burden difficult to carry. "He was exiled as well."

"He had it easy," she said in a voice now so bitterly cold, the Toa of Ice couldn't help but feel a little envious. "He knew what his crime was, and that he was being punished for it. Though I have known my own charges, I have been guessing the reasons behind it for over one thousand years."

"Stara Rohaya –" he started, but she cut him off angrily.

"Not _Rohaya_," she snapped. "That is only the name I took on when I made my blood oath to stay with Kronus and his team. It is not my true name."

"Then what is your name, Toa of Lightning?"

Trying to assert some authority, Stara squared her shoulders, like she was trying to make her anger roll over her shoulders like the raindrops on her armor. "My name is Stara ex Amari Rohaya _Gerilmi_. But don't waste your breath with _Toa_; I lost the right to call myself a Toa long ago. I am merely Lightning."

"Why can't you call yourself Toa?"

"You would not understand, Toa of Ice," she said softly, and for the first time, Nuju heard an envious tone in her voice. Despite her angry dismissal towards the title, it was clear Stara yearned to truly be called a hero again. "Even when you and your brothers and sister were branded as imposters, you never were forced to leave Metru Nui in exile, and in the end you were hailed as a hero after all. I . . . I will never have a chance to regain my honor, Nuju Metru, because the crimes I have supposedly committed to my people are unforgivable."

"And what are those crimes, Stara?" When she remained silent, he pressed on. "I cannot help you if you don't speak."

Another shiver of lightning covered her body as a heavy sigh left her. "I will tell you," she said finally. "And then, maybe, I can finally understand."

**XxX**


	17. The Exile's Tale

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 16

"I come from a southern chain of islands, beyond the homeland of Keetongu," Stara said, her voice soft; Nuju had to strain to hear it over the thunder, rain, and wind. "My people are mostly from the Lightning Tribe, though we do have some members from other tribes living beside us in Xi-Koro. We are a simple lot: we grow fruit, fish, mine the semiprecious stones of our island. Yet our heritage is great.

"On the largest island of my home, there is a well that goes straight into the universe's core, or so the stories say. The Elemental Well is the centerpiece of our Kini, and it is the place where the lives of the Toa of our islands begin and end."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Our ways are different than the rest of the universe. When our Toa know it is their time, after our Turaga has died, they pour their power into the Well's depths, never to be reclaimed by them again. In Xi-Koro's heart, a Toa Stone that had been prepared beforehand reacts with this energy transfer, and in full sight of her people, a new Toa is born from the villager chosen to become its heir."

"Why is it done this way?"

Stara shrugged. "Its' how it was always done. It's always worked in the past.

"My people take this choice very seriously. We consider each new Lightning Toa the heir to her predecessors' accomplishments, and should set a good example for those that follow her. And it worked . . . until I changed." Bitterness thickly caked her words by then, and anger older than the one smoldering in her eyes joined it, making her terrifying to look at.

"Why were you chosen?" Nuju prodded, still firmly holding her gaze despite his wish to look away.

Stara's eyes flashed. "About ten years before the Cataclysm, Turaga Taynai died. Our Toa at the time, Reya, left to choose her successor as Toa after she was buried. All thought that Taynai's right hand, Sekmet, would be chosen." Anticipating Nuju's next question, she beat him to it. "Sekmet was popular amongst our village: a Rock Scramble champion and a fierce lover of justice, as many of our tribe are. She had friends in high places – her best friend, Luxa, was our village's Chronicler at the time. Her major flaw, though, was that she was rather self-absorbed, considering herself Mata Nui's gift to the universe; my opposite in nearly every way." Though her voice didn't change its tone, the lightning above betrayed her distain with a flash and rumble.

"When it was revealed that Reya had chosen me over Sekmet, Xi-Koro's reaction was akin to an overturned beehive. A few of my friends remained by my side, along with our new Turaga, but the rest believed that I had somehow cheated Sekmet out of what should have been hers. It went on for weeks, even as I tried to learn as much about my new powers as I could from Reya.

"When a new Toa rises in our islands, she learns all she can from our Turaga before she seeks her Destiny. Not long before I was ready to leave Xi-Koro, I went into the mountainous part of the main island by myself. The storm season was drawing upon us, but the air was still, and there were no clouds in those days I was gone."

Stara paused for breath. When she resumed her story, her voice had turned harsh. "When I returned a week later, it looked like Xi-Koro was ablaze. My people had forsaken lightstones in favor of fire torches. From where I stood, it seemed like the entire village was burning. I ran, wanting to help in any way I could.

"When I reached the gates of Xi-Koro, twelve of my people were waiting; among them were Athena the messenger, Scylla the fisher, and Charybdis the watcher. They beset and chained me, calling me names I shall not repeat, for they were reserved for the worst kind of scum." Stara's voice was hardening, but it wasn't enough to hide the old fear the memories were reviving. While her anger wasn't expressed verbally, Nuju could sense it. (The increased amount of lightning helped, too.) Despite the fact this had happened years ago, and there was nothing he could do now to change the past, he felt sympathetic fear for what the young Lightning Toa had been forced to endure during that horrible night.

"They dragged me into the village heart, with those I had called friends condemning me. There I saw what I was charged with: the murders of Luxa and Narrissa, who had been in the same area I had been in when they had died. Since no storms had formed during those days, I was the only possible killer.

"I argued, of course; I told them I had not murdered them. But my efforts were futile. Even though Sekmet – the one who had discovered their bodies – was clearly prejudiced against me, there was no other explanation present. All my former allies had turned against me; not even Stiaye, my closest friend, supported me. By the time the suns had risen the next morning, I was gone, forever exiled from my home." A flash of lightning illuminated her, calling Nuju's attention to the moisture on her face. He wasn't sure if it was tears or just raindrops, though.

"By the time of Cataclysm, I was on Stelt, grubbing for what meager living I could." A small smile appeared on her face at Nuju's surprised expression, as she named that crime-ridden port. "I had little choice. Only the Dark Hunters would accept a convict for higher pay than what I earned for the odd jobs I did, but I had no wish to be bound to the Shadowed One. And . . . just because my village believed I was a killer, that didn't mean I had to act like one."

Stara paused again, trying to collect herself. Nuju was amazed by her story so far: the injustice done to her, and yet she still strove to live by the Code, despite the fact she was an exile and it didn't apply to her. His respect for her increased right there and then.

"I spent at least 200 years as a wanderer; I eventually left Stelt for other places. I took part in a few fights with the Brotherhood during that time, but I never stuck around long, in case someone found out what I was. Around that time, though, I encountered Kronus, under attack and badly outnumbered. I nearly turned away, but I came into the battle and helped him.

"He offered me a home amongst his Toa team, who were major fighters against the Brotherhood. While I was reluctant, I went with him, became allowed to tread the island by Rohaya, and eventually became the twentieth core member of the Toa Rohaya. As time went on, I confided in him about my exiled status, and he swore he would never tell any of the others about what I was.

"Eight hundred years went by in this fashion. Several weeks ago, Kronus and I went to Shi-Nui and several surrounding islands, for news and to turn in weapons and prisoners we had recently taken from a passing warship. We had all been suffering horrid nightmares at the time, but when we left, they left us . . .

"But when we returned to Rohaya, we discovered our friends dead . . . and I think you know the rest from there."

**XxX**


	18. Fortress

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 17

Nuju contemplated Stara's words for a few minutes as she herself fell silent. He was shocked by the sheer unfairness that had governed Stara's life as a Toa: being shunned for what she had become, where others thought she wasn't the one who deserved the title; being exiled just when she had started to become accepted; and Kronus's treatment of her. It may have been necessary, but it was obvious that it hurt the Toa of Lightning to be reminded of her painful past.

Still, he could tell that a piece of her past was missing. He wasn't sure what – he wasn't an ex-Archivist like Whenua was – but to the Toa of Ice could tell that a crucial element was missing from the story, and he told her so.

"But who's looking for it now?" she responded bitterly. "Luxa and Narissa were killed by lightning strikes, and I was the only Toa on an island full of Lightning-Element Matoran. So far as my people are concerned, it's Case Closed."

"Do you swear that you weren't the one who killed the Matoran?" he asked, an idea forming in his mind: one that could possibly help Stara, and bring them closer together.

She rolled her eyes, as if it were obvious what her answer would be, but replied with, "May I suffer a thousand deaths in my own body if I didn't speak truthfully."

Following an impulse, Nuju reached out and took her hand. She didn't yank away, like she had in the cave, but held it obediently as he said, "Then when this is all over, we'll go search for the truth. Together."

He could swear that he saw a flash of hope light up her eyes, even though an undercurrent of doubt was apparent in her voice as she replied. "It's not going to be easy, with me being an exile...but what's easy now in this universe, anyway?"

Warmth washed through Nuju as she agreed. "Then it's settled." Turning around, he began to pull her back toward the camp, not letting go as he did so. "Vakama and Onewa helped Kronus calm down. No offence, but we think that his idea is better than yours. Follow me back." He half-expected the Toa of Lightning to pull her hand away and walk on her own, either because of the comment about the plan or because of her own desire to walk alone, so he was quietly relieved when she did not, and consented to let him lead her through the rainy forest.

**XxX**

When they got back to the camp, both were soaked with rain water, and were relieved to be back in the dry, warm cavern. They were still holding hands: something Nuju's teammates clearly did not approve of, as he discovered when their eyes narrowed at the sight. Both of the other Toa Metru gave Stara a wide berth, as if she carried some rare disease. Kronus, however, moved toward her, apparently about to attempt making amends with his teammate.

Stara ignored the looks on Vakama and Onewa's faces, and roughly pushed by the Toa of Gravity as if he didn't exist. She made straight for the pack that had the Kanohi and rummaged through it, finally pulling out two Masks of Spirit. She tossed one to Nuju, who fumbled it for a moment before he secured it.

"Want me to come?" offered Kronus. "I –"

"No, Kronus," Stara replied stonily. "I think you've done more than enough tonight." The tone was a clear indication that the conversation – and the friendship –had come to an end, and he knew it. A morose expression crossed his face, but he retreated away from her.

"Let's go," she addressed Nuju, who obediently fitted the mask on his face.

Instantly, he felt himself leave his body, his soul hovering several bio of the ground. When he looked down, he saw his body had collapsed to the floor. Returning his gaze to its normal level, he saw Stara's spirit suspended above her own body.

"Come on," she said, beckoning with one finger before she shot through the cavern wall.

After a ten-minute flight, they came to the gate. Shaped like a Hau, its battlements were curiously deserted. Neither paid much attention to it: their target was within the stronghold.

Shooting through a huge hall, Stara came to the closed door where the captive Toa Metru's rack was. She stuck her head inside, then, with a gasp of horror, she went all the way through, Nuju hot on her heels.

Immediately he saw what she had, and had a hard time not mimicking her. All three halflings were within the room, and Kiria's hand had closed around Nokama's windpipe. The other half-beings were doing exactly the same thing to Whenua and Matau, who were awake enough to fight back against the strangleholds.

"Are they suicidal?" Nuju asked at a shocked whisper, even though she was the only one who could hear. Stara shook her head in response.

"They're letting off some frustration, that's all. They aren't that stupid. They just want your friends to feel a little pain." Eyeing the Toa in their grasp, she added, "From those bruises on their necks, I'm betting they've been doing this for a few days now."

Finally, much to the relief of those watching, the halflings released their captives and let them slump, unconscious, to the floor. As two Exo-Toa – probably summoned by one of the creatures – scurried in and began fitting them back into the prison frame, the trio became more business-like, moving on to more urgent matters than frustration.

"We've only got one chance left," Kiria growled, violet eyes glaring into those of her compatriots. "This time, we give them no chances to evade us or get to our progenitors. Once they enter, we use our troops to block every exit they could use to escape us. And if they won't come to us, we'll come to them."

Fyre seemed to agree with the Halfling of Water, but Tayra seemed undecided. "What if we left?" he asked. "What if we removed our progenitors from the island, or left it completely?"

"That would not work," Fyre said flatly. "Even if we allowed them to retake Rohaya, they would still strive to destroy us. Besides, what would happen if we told the rest of the Brotherhood that we ran away from mortals? Not only would we become the laughingstocks of Destral, Hecate would perceive us as unworthy to become halflings." While not exactly shivering, all three seemed to flinch at the mere mention of the name as they left the room for more preparations.

"So Hecate had a hand in this, then?" Stara said thoughtfully, emerging from the wall completely to regard the two machines. "Well, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised that they targeted Rohaya. She's been after us for ages."

"Who's Hecate?" came the obvious question.

"A Makuta; she oversaw islands further south than my homeland. From what I've gathered, her fortress was one of the first casualties to this war, and she's been operating from Destral ever since then. My bet is that she was the one that oversaw the Melding of these three." Realizing the inevitable follow-up question, she added, "She's extremely good at mutation: she managed to swap the elemental powers of my teammates Hesprides, Althea, and Catronia from Water, Psionics, and Lightning to the Rahkshi powers of Teleportation and Quick Healing. I can only imagine what she might be able to do to a halfling."

Nuju could, too. The resulting mental picture made him shudder.

As the Exo-Toa finished their task and made as if to leave, both Toa swooped down and took control of the robots. While Nuju kept an eye on the door, in case someone came in, Stara began to have fun messing around with the buttons and levers attached to the side of it. It didn't take long for her to set a delayed shut-down into the mechanics of the prison rack, and when that was complete, they marched out of the chamber, abandoned their robot bodies, and flew back to the base.

**XxX**

_He was in a place filled with eerie white fog. Nuju knew he wasn't alone, though. He could hear the sounds of battle up ahead. Amid the crash of metal on metal and grinding stone, he could pick out a smaller sound: the crackle of Stara's lightning._

He ran, trying to find her, but never saw her. The noise was getting louder, but she wasn't coming into view. Nuju kept running, searching for his friend, his love, in the crystalline mist. But then a sharp pain hit him in the leg, staggering the Toa of Ice. Just as he was about to look down and assess the damage, he heard Stara scream.

"NOOOO!!!!"

Then suddenly she was right in front of him, on her knees, staff discarded beside her, staring at the crimson fluid that covered her hands and dripped off of them.

A huge patch of that same liquid covered her chest.

"Stara! No!" Nuju cried out desperately, but it was no use as the Toa of Lightning collapsed, her body fading to nothing.  


"_NOOOO!!!!"_

**XxX**

"Nuju! Nuju, wake up!"

Nuju's eyes snapped open, and he looked up, breathing hard. Stara looked back at him, emerald eyes clouded with her concern as she stopped shaking him. "Are you alright? You started to spasm a few minutes ago, and mutter 'No' while you were at it."

The Toa of Ice's breathing slowed down as he realized that the events in his dream had been just that – a dream. "I'm fine. Just – just a nightmare."

"Well, let's hope that whatever happened in there will not intrude into the real world today," Stara responded as she helped him up. Dread crept back into the Toa as he remembered that today they would attack the halflings for the last time.

Twenty minutes later, five Toa lifted off the ground outside the cavern. Kronus led, with a silent Stara and Nuju flanking him and the other two Toa Metru bringing up the rear. All were quiet as they flew by the power of the Kanohi Kadin, absorbed in their own thoughts until they came to the gate. Like the night before, no guards were posted. No one spoke as Kronus produced the key and inserted it into the keyhole, shaped into the form of an Iden. With a rumble, the portcullis shuddered upward and the team entered the stone stronghold.

They met no one in the halls as they walked, which made them all uneasy. But when they made it to the Great Hall unchallenged, they began to feel a stirring of hope that they could get to the captives without a fight. Kronus began to move toward the door at a faster pace, but Stara held out her staff, blocking his path. She stepped forward, her mask glowing golden as she spoke to the empty room.

"Do not bother to hide in the shadows, halflings. I can sense your presence infecting these walls. Come out and face us – unless you are afraid."

The darkness in the corners shifted in response, the halflings melting out of them to block the door. "A bold challenge you make, little spark," hissed Fyre, body flowing with a serpent's grace as he took up a position beside Kiria and before Tayra. "But you cannot face the shadow and win."

''Then we'll go down fighting to the death," Kronus said, mace at a ready position.

"Well, get ready, Toa," snarled Tayra, clawed hands clenching and unclenching as rings of ebony energy covered his arms. "Death begins now."

**XxX**

"Hello there."

The Le-Matoran paused in his work and turned towards the unfamiliar voice, only to be forced to cover his eyes so the morning suns wouldn't blind him with their light. It has hard to tell who or what was addressing him; they were standing directly in the sun glare, so their silhouette was the only clue he had.

"I'm looking for someone," continued the unknown Matoran; he was positive that it was another Matoran, though he didn't recognize their voice. While he might've replied with a witty saying to that, the pain to his orbs impeded him from coming up with anything other than, "I might be able to assist-help you, if I could sight-see you without squinting."

"Sorry," the other apologized, moving so she was out of the sun. He sighed with relief as he redirected his gaze towards his speaker: a female Matoran. Her armor colors were not that of the Ga-Matoran, though: it was the palest color of bullion, accented with blanched, non-glittery silver as a secondary color. Her eyes were the color of sapphires, strong and deep, but his assessment of her aesthetic appearance ended quickly as she addressed him again.

"I've heard something about a Toa of Lightning showing up here, a little while ago?" she asked pleasantly, trying to be casual but her excited, eager tone making it false.

Frowning, the Matoran of Air nodded slowly. "She appear-showed with a Toa of Gravity a few weeks ago. They took off with the other Toa Metru a two-couple days afterwards, and we haven't seen-heard from them since."

"What did she look like?"

He shrugged. "I didn't sight-see her myself; the dock workers in Ga-Metru probably know more than me. From what I've been told-informed, though, she had a color-look like yours, green eyes, and a Kanohi none of us recognized." When he got no follow-up question from the female, he realized she had tuned him out from the moment he had told her the Toa had a similar color scheme as her. By straining his ears, he could pick up what she was muttering to herself.

"It has to be her. I'm close, but can I succeed? Will she listen?" she mumbled. Then, as if realizing that she was being rude, she looked back up and smiled brightly at him. "Thanks for your help . . . ?" She trailed off, realizing that she hadn't asked for his name.

Chuckling softly, he told her, "Aeolus. My name's Aeolus. Yours?"

The Matoran was already leaving, but she turned and replied. "Thanks for your help, Aeolus! And because you asked, my name is Stiaye."

And then she was gone. Shaking his head, Aeolus returned to work.

**XxX**


	19. Trinity

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 18

"Come here," taunted Onewa. "There's something I wanna show you."

Fyre reacted exactly how he anticipated and shot forward, sword at ready. The Toa of Stone crouched in response and whipped his proto pitons under the halfling's feet, attempting to trip him up. But the dark mirror leapt up and avoided stumbling over the tool's handles. But when doing so, he made himself vulnerable to the spikes of stone that shot out of the ceiling and put more punctures in his already black, pierced, frostbitten wings. Fyre gave a scream of rage that sounded like sharp claws on slate and pressed his attack on the Toa, keeping Onewa on the defensive.

Tayra was taking two Toa at the same time – Kronus and Vakama – and was doing a very good job of keeping the two on the defensive. Vakama melted the stone beneath Whenua's halfling, but the brute simply altered his density and stayed hovering. The Toa of Gravity, however, increased the gravity of everyone in the immediate area, reducing the halfling's density again. Tayra floated to a solid patch of stone and returned to his normal density. No sooner did he become solid again did he unleash a power scream that shattered quite a few windows in the fortress that hadn't already been broken.

It did not, however, move the Toa anywhere, though they did look like they were suffering from a severe migraine. Kronus' change of the gravity was still active, so they didn't go flying away as they attacked again.

The echoes of the power scream reached Stara's and Nuju's ears, but they were too busy with attempting to subdue Kiria to make any mention of it. Stara looked like a goddess of war, with static electricity in the air crackling around her, vectoring at her eyes. She channeled it into a wave of power from her multi-pronged staff that hit Nokama's halfling in her breastplate. She staggered backward a step, then recovered and sent a high-pressure jet of water at the Toa of Lightning.

Nuju intercepted it with a telekinetic shield that pushed him backward several feet across the floor, as he fought to keep his focus. Water splattered against the shield generated by his mental willpower. After the nightmare he had had the night prior, he wasn't about to let anything get at her.

Stara took advantage of the direct line coming from the halfling of water and plunged her staff into the jet, holding on with all her strength so it wouldn't get whipped out of her hands. A bolt of blue electricity shot from the tool, traveling up the stream and sending the half-being flying backward.

"Nice save," she commented, turning to Nuju.

"I couldn't let you get hurt that badly," he replied. ''Who would help me find the truth?''

The conversation ended abruptly as a blast of shadow made them leap away from each other. Nuju began running toward Stara, intent on getting themselves back together, when a direct hit to his leg injured him enough to send him to the ground.

"Nuju!" cried Stara, racing toward him, but was forced to halt as Kiria shot a bolt from her blaster that made the Toa of Lightning freeze in her tracks.

"You've meddled in my plans far too many times for you to live now, spark," snarled the halfling, lifting her hand and making her palm face the immobile Lightning Toa. "The Brotherhood may want you alive, but I say we're better off with you dead."

Hearing the words, Nuju desperately tried to stand, but his injured leg defeated him. Helpless, he watched as an orb of darkness gathered in Kiria's palm. Stara remained frozen, at the mercy of what was clearly a Nynrah Ghostblaster. Then darkness began to pulse at the edges of his vision: he was going unconscious from losing blood. He struggled to stay awake and form an ice shield that would protect her, but it seemed like it was a task that would take time that he didn't have to accomplish.

The blast shot from the clawed hand. Nuju could hear himself screaming defiance, even as his vision finally began to darken. He heard Stara scream, the same way she had in his dream. Before he lost his sight completely to the blackness of sleep, he saw Stara hunched over on her knees, staff on the ground, blood staining her hands.

Vakama heard the screams, along with everyone else, and they wheeled to see what was wrong. But before they could see anything, the sleep power of the Makuta overwhelmed them all. Before he lost consciousness completely, Vakama could swear he heard a loud crash, chasing him into darkness...

**XxX**

The Toa of Fire woke up after what could have been a minute or an hour, or even longer than that. He was on what seemed to be a metal bed, in what could have been a medical center. He looked to the side. Nuju was on another frame, still asleep; there was a brace on his leg, though his wound seemed mostly healed already. Were they safe? How long had they been asleep? Were they due to be used for halfling creation soon, or had it already happened?

The rattling of a doorknob snapped him to the present again. There were lights everywhere, illuminating his and Nuju's pallets. If he used his mask, he wouldn't cast a shadow. He made his decision, and cloaked himself in the power of the Kanohi Huna.

The door opened, and someone stepped in. The lights made discerning the figure impossible, but Vakama could see the puzzlement in the being's eyes as he scanned around the room, searching for him. They were red...the same color as Tayra's. Was Whenua's halfling here? He prepared to blast fire at the intruder.

Then a soft, familiar laugh, one he hadn't heard in weeks, filled the room and stunned the Toa of Fire. "Save me the false-illusions, Vakama. That's my job."

Vakama spluttered in shock as he returned to visibility. "How – how –"

"That's a long story, Toa-brother," responded a grinning Matau, dimming the lights so he wouldn't hurt his friend's eyes. "But I heart-think I have the time to speak-tell it."

**XxX**


	20. Souls

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 19

**Three Days Earlier...**

Out of nowhere, Whenua's nightmare seemed to change. The scene seemed to waver, as if it were an illusion that was losing its power. The Toa of Earth seized the opportunity and opened his eyes. He looked at the manacles of energy that held him in the rack, and realized that the solid-looking chains were breaking up. Realizing that he had a chance of escape, he threw himself forward. The chains resisted for a few scant seconds, then broke completely, sending him to sprawl on the floor.

He breathed in slowly, wondering. Was this another of those few peaceful dreams that the frame provided, to weaken his growing resistance to the horrors in the nightmares? It felt real, but so had everything else he had gone through in his dreams. As a test, he slapped himself in the face.

"Ow!" Evidently not.

Looking back at the rack, he saw that Matau and Nokama's chains were wavering as well. Quickly, he located the controls on the side of the rack and threw the lever that shut down the rack's power. Both crashed to the floor, Matau reviving almost immediately with a loud "Ow!"

Whenua move to help the Toa of Air rise to his feet. "Whenua? Is that ever-truly you?" he asked weakly, voice rusty from weeks of not speaking.

"It's me. We're free, somehow. I'll get our tools, you wake up Nokama."

As Matau crouched down to revive the unconscious Toa of Water, Whenua walked along the walls, now able to notice what was on the walls at his leisure. He saw many things that, had he not been in such a rush, he would've enjoyed to examine fully. But finally, he located his earthshock drills, Nokama's hydro blades, and Matau's aero slicers hanging amongst the various trophies on the walls.

When he returned to the others, Nokama was awake and on her feet, though Matau had to support her to keep her upright. Matau seemed half-asleep as well, head leaning on his opposite shoulder. Having their tools back in their hands seemed to revitalize them, awakening them fully and allowing Nokama to carry herself without the Toa of Air's support.

Whenua activated his Kanohi Ruru, making his teammates raise their hands to their eyes to shield themselves from the glare. He shined its light toward the west wall, suddenly able to see through the thick stone...and what he saw made the Toa of Earth gasp in shock.

"What is it?" asked Nokama urgently.

"The others! Our brothers... and two other Toa...they're fighting our halfings!"

"We need to quick-help them," Matau said. It was a statement, not a question.

Whenua nodded in response. "It looks pretty tied up at the moment, but since we're the only ones who can kill the things, there's no doubt that they're gonna lose." With no other words, the three escaped Toa Metru left the room and rushed toward the room of conflict, Whenua using the X-ray vision power of his mask to guide them.

Outside the room, Nokama tried the door, but it was locked. Whenua rose his drill, ready to punch a hole into the barrier, only to have it gently lowered by Matau. "Uh-uh. You sight-saw them, but I get to open the door." With a meaningful look, he added, "You may want-need to stand back."

Both of his teammates flattened themselves against the wall as the Toa of Air's mask glowed green. Seconds later, he had turned into a huge Kane-Ra, and was backing up to charge the door.

Just as he began to paw the ground, two screams rang out from behind the door. "Hurry!" cried Nokama.

Matau shot forward as they died down. Just before collision, he planted his feet on the ground and snapped his horned head forward. Door and walls parted company with an explosive retort. Conveniently, the steel door slammed into the female halfling on its journey away from its frame.

"Talk about a hard knock," remarked Whenua as he, Nokama, Matau walked through the wall, the Toa of Air returning to his normal shape as he did so.

All three halflings regrouped and faced them. They looked confident, but there was a hint of fear in their eyes as they faced the only beings in the universe who could kill them. As one, both groups leapt at their doubles.

Nokama parried hesitant strikes from Kiria. Not far away, Matau and Fyre were locked in a confined aerial duel, while Whenua and Tayra grappled in a battle of strength vs. strength. All of the dark mirrors were being wary, trying to pacify the Toa without killing them: something they were finding was much easier said than done. Nokama took advantage of this and knocked down her dark double. Before she could recover, the Toa of Water ripped the spear and blaster from her hands; casting the blaster aside but using the spear to stab into the halfing's chest.

Kiria screamed in pain and terror as her body turned into a dark fog that spiraled around her killer. Part of it – Nokama's Shadow Toa –swirled back into her, joining her darkness with her light once again. The rest vaporized into the atmosphere. Kiria was no more.

Nokama threw the spear upward, where Matau took the hint and followed her lead, snatching it from the air and plunging it clear through Fyre's torso before tossing it to Whenua for him to end Tayra's days. Now unhindered by their enemies, they looked around to check on the other Toa.

Matau bent down over a Toa of Lightning, whose hands were bloodstained. Lifting her up gingerly, not sure of how she was faring, he and the other released Toa Metru carried the sleeping combatants to the fortress's medical center.

After the five had been placed onto beds in different rooms, all three conscious thought they heard something: the screeches of Rahkshi and the all-too-familiar gnashing of Visorak mandibles. Rushing to an empty windowframe, they watched, amazed and fascinated, as the Visorak and the Rahkshi that had been based on the island fled, feeling the deaths of their masters and running from those who had destroyed them.

**XxX**

"So let me get this straight. We've been out for _three days_?"

Matau shrugged. "Well, you and Nuju have been, at least. Onewa woke up a few hours later, and the Toa-hero of Lightning – Stara, I think she speak-said was her name? – came around about a day ago."

"What's this about Stara?" Nuju said groggily as he sat up. "I thought she was badly hurt," he added, in a voice half hopeful, half fearful.

The Toa of Air looked at Nuju with curious eyes, clearly interested in Nuju's concern for the other Toa. "Oh, she wasn't hurt-injured badly. She just got some blood on her hands. Kronus, the Toa-hero of Gravity, though – he's the one you should be deep-concerned about."

"What happened to Kronus?" Vakama whispered, his blood suddenly feeling like ice in his veins.

"From what they speak-said between them, Kronus took a hit for meant for Stara that knocked him unconscious and gave him a hard-deep wound. Nokama's hardly left his side since we brought you to this part of their fortress, but" –and suddenly Matau's voice sobered – "we don't think he'll live-last much longer."

Both Toa Metru leapt off the pallets and charged past their friend out into the hall. Matau rejoined them a few seconds later and lead them to a large room.

Inside, Whenua and Nokama were monitoring Kronus' vitality on the machines he was hooked up to. Onewa was standing well away from Stara, who was sitting by the sleeping Toa's bed, staring at him as if her gaze would heal him if she concentrated hard enough.

"How is he?" asked the Toa of Fire, speaking softly so not to wake him up.

Without looking up, Nokama replied, "His pulse has been going down for the last few hours. We've tried everything we can think of, but nothing's working."

Kronus stirred and opened his gold eyes, as if it were the hardest task in the world. "Stara..." he croaked.

"I'm here," the Toa of Lightning murmured, her voice holding none of the hostility it had during her last conversation with her leader; the night he'd revealed she was an exile. Fear of losing another friend had erased it completely.

Kronus looked meaningfully at the Toa Metru, and they took the hint, leaving the room and closing the door behind them.

"Listen..." he breathed, and Stara leaned closer to hear. "I never... really told you... how much I valued you on the team. You... were our finest member, the one being I trusted as much as Eos, Ares, and Atlas."

"But why?" she whispered, unable to raise her voice as she sat next to her leader's deathbed. "I was – I _am_ – an exile. Why would you trust me as much as you trusted the others?"

"You saved my life, when you could've left me to die all those years ago. It's a debt I can't really repay."

"You began to repay it when you gave me a home, continued to by allowing me to stay after you learned my past, and paid it in full by taking that blast for me.'' replied the Toa of Lightning, a tear sliding down her mask. "Your debt has been fulfilled, Kronus, my leader, my friend...my brother. Be at peace."

"Farewell Stara, my sister. May fate be kinder to you in the coming days." And with that, his eyes closed, and a chill wind whipped through the open window, taking the life of the Toa of Gravity Kronus with it.

**XxX**

Stara stood in a side courtyard, nineteen blood-red carnations in her hands as night fell around her like a cloak. The bodies of her teammates, encased in stone by Onewa, lay in rows before her. After they had been buried, she had spent the entire day carving inscriptions into the tombs, glorying in the taxing energy it took to do it, while the Toa Metru had paid their respects to the dead. Now she would do the same.

Slowly, she walked in the alleyways between the tombs, laying a single flower on each. When she got to the last one – Kronus' – she broke down with tears, choking out the words that would confirm that they had moved on. They were the words that victims of murder and those that had died in battle had been honored with on her homeland, and though she was an exile, she felt it was right that her teammates were honored with those words as well.

"Life has been taken, but it has been repaid. You are avenged. May your souls find solace in the Great Spirit's presence."

No other words were said. She stood there, tears streaming down her face and sparks cascading over her body as she mourned those who had died – the team of which she was the only survivor.

**XxX**

The next day came raggedly. They had all been ready to leave Rohaya after Kronus and his team had been laid to rest, but Vakama – who had retaken leadership after Stara had told him she had no interest in leading them anywhere now – felt that they should comb the island for any Rahkshi and Visorak that remained on the island. While the three captives had seen the remaining troops fleeing out the window three days prior, they weren't convinced that they were all gone.

It was on one of these searches that Matau's keen ears picked up the sound of something crashing through the underbrush towards them. Silently, he gestured in that direction to Whenua and Nuju.

"Is it close?" the Toa of Earth asked softly.

The Air Toa shook his head. "It's near-close to shore," he replied. The wind whistled and rustled through the trees as it blew more noise towards him, and he listened harder. "Doesn't sound-seem like a Rahkshi, though. More like a Matoran: it's speak-talking to itself." No one asked for more details.

"Which direction?" Matau pointed southwest, towards the beach that Kronus had landed their airship nearly two weeks ago. In a similarly nonverbal fashion, they outlined their plan. Matau would fly ahead and approach the being from behind, while the Toa of Ice and the Toa of Earth would come in from the front. It was a pincer movement, in case Matau's diagnosis was incorrect.

Matau took off, and Nuju and Whenua continued to walk silently in the direction the Air Toa had indicated. Five minutes after his departure, they heard voices: Matau's voice, and that of an unknown female, slightly higher in pitch than Nokama's or Stara's. Pausing only to exchange faintly amused looks at each other, they took off in that direction.

The motes of sound led to a clearing, where Matau was leaning against one of the great pines, arms folded, aero slicers in hand, not taking his jasper eyes off the Matoran standing in the center. Nuju noted absently that she carried a loaded Kanoka launcher (disk code 167), wore an unaltered Matatu like him, and had blue eyes, but what he mostly saw was the color of her armor. While there were subtle differences between them – this female wore palest silver and gold, compared to the dark golds and greys he was used to – there was no getting around the fact that this Matoran was of the Lightning tribe, the same as Stara; they might even be from the same region.

Both looked towards the two new arrivals as they pushed branches aside to join the duo. "Hello," the Xi-Matoran said pleasantly to them, inclining her head in respect. "Toa Nuju and Whenua, I presume?"

"You presume correctly," the Earth Toa said. "Why are you here?"

"I was told that a Toa of Lightning, a certain Stara, was here on Rohaya. Is she here?"

All three Toa exchanged a long look before answering, clearly wondering just who this person was. "Yes," Matau finally said. "What about her?"

"Can you take me to her? I wish to speak to her, nothing more."

"We'll bring you to the fortress," Whenua said. "But what's your name?"

"Stiaye. My name's Stiaye."

Nuju started to get that sinking feeling, as he remembered what Stara had told him. "I'll go ahead and give her a head's up," he said quickly, taking off before the surprised trio could comment.

**XxX**

The Toa of Ice ruthlessly ordered his complaining legs to move faster towards the fortress. He had a feeling that Stara would require a bit of forewarning before she and Stiaye came mask-to-mask for the first time in over a millennium. From what he had gathered from her narration four nights previously, she felt mostly like Stiaye had betrayed her; there was no telling what her reaction might be if she wasn't even slightly prepared.

After returning to the fortress – and pausing to catch his breath – Nokama directed him to the eastern courtyard, where she had last seen the Toa of Lightning. When Nuju arrived, Stara was standing alone in between the rows of stone sarcophagi, eyes closed and her breathing soft. She looked half-asleep, peaceful; he wished he wouldn't have to disturb her with a grim reminder of her past, so soon after losing her friends.

"Stara?" he called softly.

The Toa of Lightning stirred, and then turned to face him. She was dead on her feet, green eyes at half-mast, voice thick with exhaustion as she replied. "What is it, Nuju?"

"There's a Matoran that landed here a few minutes away; Whenua, Matau, and I found her in the forest. She wanted to speak to you." He decided, just for the moment, to not mention that Matoran's identity just yet. It would be better if he warmed her up a little bit before telling her.

She sighed tiredly and collected her staff, moving towards him and the passageway. "Some pencil-pusher from Shi-Nui, I'm betting," she grumbled, just loudly enough for him to hear it. "Don't they get that it's barely past sunsrise?"

By the time Nuju had been able to turn around, he realized that whatever trick she had to move quickly had been utilized yet again, since the Toa of Lightning had already vanished, despite the fact she shouldn't be moving too quickly. His sinking feeling increased even more, as he took off back towards the gate.

By the time he had reached it, Stara was already standing there, arms folded over her heartlight and leaning against the stone, trying not to fall asleep as she scanned the forest. "So where is this Matoran?" she asked, opening one eye a little more to regard the Toa of Ice as he arrived.

"Whenua and Matau should be bringing her soon."

Stara frowned, even as Vakama, Nokama, and Onewa wandered over, curious as to what was going on. (None of the companions of the Toa Rohaya had told their released brothers and sister of what Stara was just yet – something that Nuju found amazing, given their negative reactions towards her after they had learned that she was an exile.) "She?" the gold and grey Toa inquired, turning her head towards him to better examine him. "Who is this Matoran?'

Nuju summoned his best skills at diplomacy and started to say "Her name is –" but his words became completely unneeded as, with a series of crashing and snapped branches, the Toa of Air, the Toa of Earth, and the Xi-Matoran they had with them appeared in the clearing before the gate.

All concerned had the privilege of watching the Toa of Lightning's face twist with shock and anger for a moment, only to smooth back over into an expressionless mask beneath a mask. She seemed calm, but Nuju could hear the minute cracklings in the air, as her powers reacted with the electricity in the air and charged her armor with static voltage.

Stiaye shivered slightly, despite the fact it was pleasantly warm on Rohaya, and stepped forward, hands out and palms up, an indication she meant no harm. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. In the end, it was Stara who started the conversation, and while her tone was pleasant, there was enough anger and acid in her voice to melt metal.

"Well, hello there, Stiaye," she said coolly. "How've you been? Me? I've been _really _busy being an exile. You remember . . . after you and the others _banished_ me?" She didn't seem to take any notice of the suddenly-startled expressions on the faces of the uninformed Toa Metru as she blurted it out, nor did she appear to care. Nuju just had to wonder how long she had been longing to spit these biting words out at someone responsible for her exile, how long she had been storing up her anger for this opportunity.

The words made their mark on the Matoran: she flinched at these harsh reminders, yet she pressed on, trying to get in a word in edgewise, but Stara wasn't having it. She had begun to warm to her subject, and each word was calculated for maximum ruthlessness, coldly ignoring the Matoran's attempts to speak and using her own words against her.

"I know we left on a bad note, Stara, but –"

"A bad note?" the Toa replied, her voice dripping with contempt. "Let me think: I got dragged through Xi-Koro's streets, got called the spawn of a Piraka, didn't get a decent chance to present my case, and have been living rough ever since I got kicked out forever – I'm pretty sure that _bad note_ is something of an understatement.

"So, what are you here for, old friend? Pour salt on my wounds? Check to make sure that no one cares about who I am, but everything about what I am? Go. I can assure you no one does." Nuju wasn't sure if Stara was lying about that last sentence, but he still felt irritated.

"Stara – friend – listen, please –" Stiaye pleaded, desperate to make herself heard.

"Don't call me that," Stara snapped, her voice as hard as protosteel, finally letting bald anger show itself. "You lost the right to call me your friend the day I was exiled." With an edge of finality, the Toa of Lightning spun around and began to walk away.

"It's because of your exile Turaga Reya sent me to find you!" cried the Xi-Matoran, in a desperate act to hold the irate Toa's attention.

Stara paused in mid-stride. "What's this about Reya?" she asked, not turning around.

Stiaye took a deep breath. "She told me to literally get down on my knees and beg if that was what it took for you to understand. Exiling you was the worst mistake any of us have made in our lives, and I carry a plea from us all for you to forgive us and come back home, where you belong – as our true Toa."

**XxX**

Portal reference (well, Portal 2 reference, anyway) to those that can spot it. =P


	21. The Messanger's Tale

Heroes and Halflings – Chapter 20

"It's the truth, I swear it. I would never lie about something like this, Stara."

They had moved from the gateway to the library after Stara – and everyone else – had recovered from the bombshell Stiaye had abruptly dropped on them. Now all eight of them were gathered around a large table that had been meant to seat ten. Stara herself was seated at its head, in a great winged chair, with the Xi-Matoran opposite of her. The chair on the Lightning Toa's left was vacant – Onewa had refrained from sitting beside her, still wary of her – but Nuju had filled the space on her right. He thought he had done so surreptitiously, but knowing looks from Onewa, Matau, and Nokama informed him that he had failed in the endeavor.

"Forgive me if I'm not inclined to take words at face value, Stiaye," Stara replied, leaning her head on her right hand (her elbow was resting on the arm) and rubbing her temples through her mask, eyes closed most of the way. "Regardless, let's hear it."

"A while back, a Toa of Water came to our islands. Her name was Selvan," Stiaye began obligingly. "She had known Reya in the days when she was a Toa, and had paid a visit. When she asked what had happened in the last twelve hundred years since they had seen each other, Reya told her about your exile. But then Selvan asked why she was lying to her about what you had claimed. 'I wear the Mask of Truth, Reya,' she had said. 'I cannot be fooled. Stara was telling the truth – she is innocent.'

"The investigation reopened right away. With Selvan helping us, we managed to pick up the train of events again, and it eventually led us to Sekmet. When we asked if she knew anything about Narissa and Luxa's deaths, she denied it. But Selvan picked up the fact she was lying right away, and told us so. Right after she said that, Sekmet broke down and told us everything.

"She told us that right after you had become a Toa, she had gone off into the mountains to moan about how she had been cheated out of what was hers. According to her, a Makuta had approached her and said that she knew a way to give it to her. She had been desperate at the time, shallow, and had agreed to what the Makuta said.

"Sekmet had been told to watch for when you had left the village, during a time when there were no storms, so she could get you exiled with the Makuta's help. When the chance came, she went into the mountains with the two victims, and watched the Makuta kill them with lightning. She hated herself for sending them to their deaths... but the Makuta said if it got you exiled, and your powers were transferred to her, the deaths would be a small price to pay.

"You know what happened after that, Stara. We exiled you, for a crime you didn't commit. But when your power wasn't taken away, Sekmet kept her mouth shut out of shame. She knew what the Makuta had wanted now – a powerful ally so she could take our village without much resistance. But she had been horrified by what she had done, and so kept quiet.

"We weren't sure what to do with her after she confessed. We managed to get the name of the Makuta out of her before some huge creatures came and took her away. Big teeth, nasty-looking faces... I don't envy that wretched Matoran, wherever she is now.

"That was two years ago. Afterward, Reya told me to find you and tell you of what had happened, and to ask you to come home."

"If this happened two years ago," Stara started slowly, sounding a little wary of the news, as if not sure whether to believe it, "why have I only learned about it now?"

"It took me a while to find you, Stara – you never were the easiest person to find, especially when you didn't want to be found by anyone who had known you. That, and the fact the universe isn't very safe nowadays." Stiaye hesitated, than murmured, "I'm sorry about not standing up for you all those years ago, Stara. Even at the time, I didn't think the others were completely right, but the events seemed to match up, and I went along with the others. It was only when Selvan told us that you were innocent that I let it show, even though I've been guilty the entire time." She sighed. "Watching us freeze was so bad . . ."

The Toa of Lightning – along with the Toa Metru – frowned in puzzlement. "Freeze?" she inquired.

"It's kinda hard to explain, but after you . . . left, we changed. As the years went by from that day, we . . . _ faded,_ I guess that's the only other term for it. By the time Selvan came, we had become shadows of our former selves; little more than machines. Only the storms inspired much joy from us, and that was only barely." The Toa shuddered as they imagined such an empty life, but Stara seemed unmoved.

"Why did it become so?" Nokama asked.

Stiaye shrugged helplessly. "We don't know. We've got theories, but most of them are pretty wild and unreasonable."

Privately, Stiaye wasn't sure if she herself was telling the full story – or wanted to. While what she had said was technically the truth, she really didn't want to speak of the three hideous creatures that had appeared that night, setting the suva ablaze and dancing in its infernal light, shrieking in an otherworldly language. When they had vanished, the fire had vanished with them, leaving the suva undamaged but leaving a fog of smoke above their head, and they had felt invisible eyes glaring at them from the shadows. Only then had Sekmet finally broken down and confessed to everything before the entire village, gibbering nonsense by the end. Some had later wondered if the Xi-Matoran had been driven insane by that sight; if her guilt had been wearing her down for centuries, and seeing this had finally made her snap.

After wresting the name of the Makuta from her, Xi-Koro had been prepared to take action against her, both to avenge the honor of their wrongly-exiled Toa and their own shame for falling for such a deception. But those strange creatures had reappeared then, standing between them and Sekmet, and had whisked her away to places unknown, saying they alone had the right to punish the likes of the traitorous Xi-Matoran. And the instant she had been seized and they had vanished, the entire village had felt that heaviness lift from their hearts.

Even two years later, Stiaye wasn't what to think. Was their heartlessness caused by Stara's injustice, and only acknowledge of what had really happened would end it? A hallucination, the creatures and their sullen personas a result of their own guilt and shame? Or had they really been the mythological Hounds of Karzanhi, and had been afflicting them with this until Sekmet exposed herself? Perhaps she would never know.

The Xi-Matoran's train of thought was broken by the heavy, slow, exhalation of the Toa of Lightning. "The Makuta's name –what was it?"

"Kiria."

A long silence descended over the Toa assembled, as the name of the dead Makuta-turned-halfling seeped through the air like a heavy fog. Stara was the one who broke the quiet.

"You don't have to worry about her anymore, Stiaye," she murmured. "Kiria is dead –slain by Toa Nokama over there."

"I'm glad to hear that." The Matoran paused, and then returned to the more pressing matter, choosing her words with care. "So I ask you again, Stara – will you return to the Amaris as our Toa? We hope you will say yes, but none of us will blame you the slight if you refuse."

Stara's eyes closed again, almost lost in thought but as motivated by lethargy as by indecision. Nuju remained silent, along with the other Toa Metru. Like them, he was waiting for her choice, but he too was torn. Part of him wanted her to forgive Stiaye and Xi-Koro, since she was being offered the thing she had wanted the most but had though she would never get. The rest of him jealously wanted her to refuse, if only for a few hours, so he could spend just a little extra time with her.

After a long silence (you could've heard a pin drop in it), Stara finally spoke, not opening her eyes yet but clearly addressing Stiaye on the other side of the table. "I do not lie when I say I don't fully forgive Xi-Koro for exiling me all those years ago. But justice was being done all that time ago – I know that if I and another member of Xi-Koro had had our positions reversed during that time, I would come to the same conclusion – and it is being done now. This I also recognize."

Her eyes opened, emerald suns burning behind her mask. "We leave Rohaya in three days. We'll accompany the Toa Metru back to the city, and then go home from there." Her voice was calm during this brief decision, but there was no mistaking the excitement that thrummed in her heart and filled her expression, as a smile – a real smile, not her twisted, exile's half-grin – crossed her tired face.

Stiaye whooped with delight as her old friend chose, and the Toa Metru were happy for her as well. Only Nuju remained silent, since now, he knew, he would have to make a choice himself.

**XxX**


	22. Epilogue

Heroes and Halflings – Epilogue

The night was a velvety black, with the stars glittering like a multitude of diamonds scattered across it. It was a perfect time for seeking, but that was not the reason Nuju was up on the fortress balcony. No, other reasons had driven him up here: reasons that he had once tried to deny, but now had no reason to.

It had been two days since Stiaye had arrived with her message, and since then, Stara had been a whirlwind of activity preparing to leave Rohaya for good. She had been deciding what to take with her back home (the pile was amazingly small), what to take to Metru Nui for the Archives to have, and what to leave in the stronghold. Among those in the latter group was a letter she had written to anyone who came here, explaining what had happened in the past month.

She had been moving at a speed that could put any of Matau's cyclones to shame over those days – too fast for the Toa of Ice to tell her how he felt about her.

While everyone (herself included) had been under the impression that the Toa of Lightning was an exile, Nuju had tried to fight against his love for her. But ever since the news had been shared, he couldn't get her out of his head, now that he could no longer conjure up resistance to it.

Stara and Stiaye were planning to accompany the Toa Metru on the two-day journey back to the City of Legends, and stay about two days there while they prepared for the next leg of their travel home. No matter how he looked at it, the time they had together – his chances to tell her his feelings – were numbered – if he could even put his thoughts into order.

He sighed, his body slouching over the parapet. He had no idea where to begin, even if he could pull her aside from her enthusiastic work. He had no personal experiences to draw off of, not even something from books. Nokama had, in the past, shown him this fictional romance or that one, and had urged him to read it. When a "no" hadn't been enough to dissuade her, he would take the book reluctantly, saying he would read it, but then start in on something Matau would call "Karzahni-boring", and forget all about it.

The Toa of Ice glared up at the diamond-bright stars, demanding an answer from them he knew he would never get, and cursing himself for not having a single point of reference to help organize his thoughts and find what he could possibly say to her.

"Nice night, isn't it?"

Nuju whirled around and found himself mask-to-mask with Stara herself. He flinched back from their sudden closeness, than felt guilty for doing so, when he had been thinking about her and when their time was so limited. "Sorry," he apologized, slightly sheepish.

The Lightning Toa's mouth twisted into her strange, familiar half-smile at his reaction. Her tendency to suddenly appear and disappear hadn't faded during this time: the only change was that Nokama, Matau, Whenua, and Stiaye were now on her list of victims. She had still avoided telling them how it worked, and since Kronus now slept in his stone sarcophagus, he doubted they would ever find out the secret of the trick she continued to play.

"S'alright," she said, voice slightly slurred from the late hour as she moved to his left, leaning against the stone: it had to be nearly midnight by now, and she had always been the last to go to sleep and the first up in the morning. Excitement at her discovery that she was free to return home, no longer being an exile, and her grief about the deaths of the Toa Rohaya – particularly Kronus – had seen to her sleeplessness personally.

He returned his gaze to Stara, from where he had averted his gaze towards the sky, noticing a subtle difference from the ecastic Toa who had been roaming the halls these last couple days. She didn't resemble the being he had been used to seeing: the one who had a heavy burden – her past – weighing down on her shoulders. No, she seemed like she was dragging her feet; slowing down all of a sudden. Worried, he asked her what was wrong.

"I feel as if I'm abandoning the others," she said heavily, naming her nineteen dead teammates with those words. "I was all psyched to go home, but now I feel as if I'm leaving it again. That, and . . . other things have been weighing on my mind."

"Things have been giving me something to think about over the last week as well," he said softly in reply.

"Like what?"

Nuju forced himself to meet the intense green stare she was directing at him, and not to flinch away from her predator-like gaze. Unskilled he might be in relationships such as this, he did know that eye contact was vital at times like this. He forced his voice to steady and level as he spoke the words.

"For a while, I've been having . . . strange feelings. I've tried to fight them off, but I can't deny that they're right, true.

"I . . . I love you, Stara."

There. He'd said it. He quickly turned away, so he wouldn't have to see the amused look she'd no doubt be wearing now. Nuju braced himself for the scornful teasing the former exile would scald him with, words that would hurt worse than anything else.

But when she did speak, her voice was much softer then he'd thought it would be.

"You know, when I'd hear the legends about your team, Nuju, I would know I admired you," she said, her fingertips tracing invisible patterns on the stone, addressing both the fortress and the Ice Toa. "To me, you were the one who would understand, who would help me regain what I had lost – and I was right. But when we met, I realized that it wasn't an admiration; at least, not completely . . . it was more like an amoration."

At that last word, her cool hand came to rest on his shoulder. He spun around to find himself staring into her depthless emerald eyes, the space between them now nonexistant. She moved ever closer, their masks almost touching . . . and then the fantasies Onewa had risen after the conversation that had made the Toa of Ice come to recognize his feelings came true.

Nuju had heard that a first kiss from someone you truly loved felt like electricity shooting through your body, originating from where your lips met.

In this case, this statement was defiantly true. As soon as he responded to the moment by wrapping his arms around her like chains of the hardest ice while he kissed her back, Stara's power responded to her increased heartbeat and sent an electric current over her. Even though his eyes had closed, he could feel the gentle shocks, hear the crackling as her power danced over their bodies. He ignored them. It didn't matter. At this moment, only the Toa in his arms mattered. Nuju was deaf to everything except the rapid, excited heartbeat next to his own, senseless to everything except Stara's lithe form partially yielding in his embrace: even in a moment like this, she determined to hold her own.

Neither wanted the moment to end, though they both knew it was inevitable to do so. Reluctantly, they both pulled away, but stayed in each other's arms, Stara's power still snapping around them.

"I love you, Nuju," she said, absolute certainty in her voice. "My heart is yours."

"But what about Kronus?" he asked hesitantly, not sure if they should be proclaiming themselves so soon after the Toa's death. Stara understood his real question, though, and smiled at him.

"He was no more than a friend to me, Nuju . . . not in the way we are. Our bond was nothing more than a friendship – a trying one, but a friendship nonetheless. And even if we ever had feelings for each other," she added, laughing slightly, "I would have had to pry his heart out of Eos' grip . . . which would never, ever, happen. Not even in death."

No other words were spoken – or needed to be. As they kissed again, Nuju knew that everything would turn out alright in the end between them.

They may be destined to be pulled apart by their duty, but he knew that they would someday find themselves reunited in each other's arms again. Until that day came, and in the time they still had, the Toa of Ice would cherish every moment they shared, holding them to his heart until the day he died.

**XxX**

Beneath the volcano that was the heart of the island Stara and her comrades had called home, the lava bubbled, each bursting accordingly to the desires of the one who lurked below.

For nearly as long as this universe had existed, the volcano had been active, venting the emotions of Rohaya's captive being as they had come and gone. Its Purpose meant it could never sleep, and it had ceaselessly worked to serve Mata Nui, the Great Spirit, and protect the light.

Now, though – the Purpose was complete. While not turning out the way Rohaya had expected, the Toa it had gathered to it had done all that had been asked of them, fighting the Brotherhood in their own way. Now, though, nineteen lay dead beneath its surface and the last of them – the strongest of them, the last to have joined their number and the only one to survive what had come – was preparing to leave. To her, she would never return, but the future was hardly certain.

If the being had eyes, they would've blinked sleepily; if it had a mouth, it would've yawned. Now, he could finally sleep. The island would no longer be driven by its wills; those that came and went from it would – assuming Rohaya was ever treaded upon again.

As the seven Toa and one Matoran left, the captive being sunk into endless slumber – not death, but not normal sleep, either – and the Krycai fell silent in accordance.

**XxX**

Stara rapidly scaled the cliffs above the beach, Stiaye clinging to her shoulders like her life depended on it. _And it probably does,_ thought the Toa of Lightning. Grasping an overhanging rock, she hauled herself to the top, barely breathing hard. On purpose, she had ignored the carved steps that led from the cove-harbor to the top of the cliff and scaled it without a harness – and for some crazy reason, the Xi-Matoran had gripped her shoulders and came along for the ride.

Stiaye looked at her incredulously as she slid off her back. "How can you do that?" she asked. "I'd be gasping for breath if I was doing the climbing!"

"Mask of Enhancement, remember? Not to mention I've benefitted from over 1000 years of strength training."

There was no trace of bitterness in Stara's voice as she mentioned her years of exile: she had all but forgiven her people fully for the act. Stiaye still flinched at the obvious allusion, though. Stara quickly defused the awkward moment by adding, "Though if you were doing the climbing, you'd definitely be panting – I don't weigh as little as you do," and her friend laughed.

"The village is still where it was last time I was here, right?" the Toa asked. Another allusion, but the Xi-Matoran barely noticed as she nodded assent, a grin spreading across her face. "Wanna race, Stara?" she challenged.

"Have I changed that much?" returned her friend. "I'll go easy on you – and give you a head start!"

But even at a slower pace, Stara was still faster. As she waited at the top of a hill for her Matoran friend to catch up, the Toa of Lightning looked down.

Her breath caught as she saw her home at the bottom. The huts were arranged the same way she remembered them, the dwellings of the Xi-Matoran arranged in the curving arcs of the symbol for Unity, Duty, and Destiny, while the Suva and Reya's hut made up the center points. Stara's had been there in the center, too, and still was, as was the curving wall that defended the village. Time seemed to shudder and turn back on itself, because it had been on a clear night like this one Stara had looked back on her village for what had seemed to be the last time.

Glancing back toward Stiaye, who was still a ways off, Stara pried open her breastplate and removed the memory crystal Nuju had given her two weeks ago, when she had left Metru Nui with Stiaye. He had shown her how to imprint and view memories she stored in the stone . . . and then had given her another memory before they had parted. Clenching her hand, she willed it to activate.

The memories of her time as a Toa – pre- and post-exile – swirled through her mind's eye, but she flicked through them quickly. Behind her they may be, but they were still painful to watch. Besides, they weren't the images she was looking for.

She slowed down as she hit the time when she had met the Toa Metru for the first time. Octipi Grotto, Razor's Edge, Dragon's Watchtower, storming the fortress, Kronus's death, Stiaye's news . . . she relaxed her forced fast-forward as she found what she wanted.

Stara was experiencing the first kiss she and Nuju had shared, on their last night on Rohaya. She was reliving every stolen moment they had managed to find on the airships and on Metru Nui. And she felt the long, true promise he had given her before she had departed again.

She shut down the crystal as Stiaye staggered up to her, gasping for breath. Smiling slightly, she touched the Xi-Matoran's shoulder and willed her mask to strengthen her friend. Her breathing slowed and evened out, and she flashed a grateful look at Stara.

"Turaga Reya told me that when we came back, you should send a bolt of controlled lightning over the village, so they know it's you," she explained to her old friend.

Stara smiled. She'd give them controlled lightning, and then some.

Her staff in one hand, the crystal in the other, she raised her arms, as if to embrace the starry heavens. Three streamers of lightning shot from her tool, racing over the roofs of the huts below, and then twisting themselves into the symbols for the three virtues above the Suva.

The Toa of Lightning held them there for ten seconds, than willed them back into her. No sparks ran over her now. The stress she had felt as an exile was now gone.

The gates swung open and Matoran poured out like water through a spillway. Their eyes immediately focused on the Xi-Matoran standing on the hill's crest – and the tall Toa contrasting to the stars behind her.

As the group surged forward, Stara began to imprint this image into the crystal in her palm. She wanted to never forget this night – the night she came home.

What had she said to Nuju, before they had pulled away from each other's embrace? _We'll see each other again. In life or death, we'll meet again._

_No matter how long it takes, I'll be waiting, _he had promised.

"I'll see you again, my love," she murmured to herself. "But for now . . . I've got it good right here."

Staiye smiled at her friend. Stara had told her on the journey how she and the Toa of Ice had fallen in love with each other. The Toa of Lightning had made a difficult decision in choosing her home over her heart, and she knew it.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go home."

"Home," echoed the Toa happily.

And together the two heartsore travelers started down to rejoin their people.

**End**


End file.
